My colleague Rod Liddle writes elsewhere in these pages about the medias strange reluctance to use the M-word vis-à-vis the rioting youths. Im sure hes received, as I have, plenty of emails arguing that theres no Islamist component, theyre not the madrasa crowd, they may be Muslim but theyre secular and Westernised and into drugs. Its the lack of jobs; these riots derive from conditions peculiar to France, etc. As one correspondent wrote, You right-wing shit-for-brains think everythings about jihad.
This concerted effort to paint what's happening as economic and not jihad is the most disturbing aspect of the whole intifada.