Free Republic

PARIS — France declared a state of emergency Tuesday to quell the country's worst unrest since the student uprisings of 1968 that toppled a government, and the prime minister said the nation faced a "moment of truth" over its failure to integrate Arab and African immigrants and their children.

The mainstream media seemed to have settled on the sobriquet of “youths” to describe the people who are in their 13th night of burning cars, buildings, and in one instance a handicapped woman, in cities across France. Of course, it is hard to get an exact demographic profile of rioters on the run; however, reports on those who have been arrested are that only 30% are under 21. Typical of the 2,300 stories on this subject currently available on Google News, is this one from ABC International, posted in written form on the Net on 6 November, entitled “Chirac vows...

DOHA, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Influential Muslim cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi has called for calm in French riots led by disaffected immigrants, many of them Muslims of North African origin, the official Qatar News Agency reported. Qaradawi, dean of an Islamic college in Qatar known to millions of Arabic-speakers through a weekly show on the Al Jazeera television, also called on the French government to address the root causes of the violence. "As Arabs and Muslims we wish for security, safety and peace for France and its friendly people, not least because France has an attitude towards Arab and Islamic issues...

Riots that began on the outskirts of Paris have spread into the center of the French capital and to other communities in other parts of the country. Thousands of cars have been set on fire and the police and even medical personnel have been shot at. -- snip -- Like housing projects in America, many of these are centers of social degeneration, lawlessness and violence. Three years ago, profound British social critic Theodore Dalrymple wrote of "burned-out and eviscerated carcasses of cars everywhere" in these projects, among other signs of social degeneration. This was in an essay titled "The Barbarians...

Paris Riots Spread to Brussels, Berlin The riots that started 12 days ago in the impoverished suburbs of Paris and spread to many regions in the country are already spreading to neighboring countries. Cars were set on fire in Strasbourg, Baurdeau, Dijon, Lille, Marseille and Niza, as well as in Berlin and Brussels. The 12th night of violence affected 300 towns in France and terrified the Old Continent. Radical Islamists opened fire against the police. 34 policemen were injured, the condition of two of them is critical. A man died after extremists beat him up. 1,400 cars were burnt down....

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Schools and churches were burned in several French towns in an 11th straight night of unrest and arson, despite words from the president that restoring order was a top priority. Police arrested nearly 150 people overnight and into Monday morning even as French President Jacques Chirac vowed to crack down on the perpetrators, who have wreaked havoc in towns in southern and eastern parts of France and in the capital Paris. Overnight Sunday rioting spread across the nation, and into Paris proper, with a half dozen cars set on fire for the first time in the...

French youths riot again Tue Nov 8, 2005 10:16 AM GMT Villepin announces curfews French officials, community leaders By Tom Heneghan PARIS (Reuters) - Youths rioted across France overnight, torching more than 1,000 vehicles, despite government plans to impose curfews to quell almost two weeks of unrest. The protests, blamed on racism and unemployment, receded in the Paris region after shots were fired at police the previous night but continued unabated in other parts of France in the early hours of Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said. Other countries watched nervously and some issued travel warnings. Five cars were torched overnight...

According to the first reports out of France this morning, over 5500 cars total have burned....click here for my running totals (I've got a bus total as well now). Since this is the first thread I've posted on FR, I need to know if posting once about my tally site is enough, or if it's ok to post a daily updated vanity as long as the riots continue? What says the wisdom of long-time Freepers?

The rioting by Muslim youth that began Oct. 27 in France to calls of “Allahu Akbar” may be a turning point in European history. What started in Clichy-sous-Bois, on the outskirts of Paris, by its eleventh night had spread to 300 French cities and towns, as well as to Belgium and Germany. The violence, which has already been called some evocative names – intifada, jihad, guerilla war, insurrection, rebellion, and civil war – prompts several reflections: End of an era: The time of cultural innocence and political naïveté, when the French could blunder without seeing or feeling the consequences, is...

Islamic Jihad: The Conclusive Case The Romans conquered the barbarians—and the barbarians conquered Rome. So it goes with empires. And comes now the penultimate chapter in the history of the empires of the West. This is the larger meaning of the ritual murder of Theo Van Gogh in Holland, the subway bombings in London, the train bombings in Madrid, the Paris riots spreading across France. The perpetrators of these crimes in the capitals of Europe are the children of immigrants who were once the colonial subjects of the European empires. At this writing, the riots are entering their 12th night...

Meanwhile, the Union for Islamic Organizations of France, which has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, has issued a fatwa declaring: “It is formally forbidden to any Muslim seeking divine grace and satisfaction to participate in any action that blindly hits private or public property or could constitute an attack on someone’s life.” There is a strange ambiguity in this, recalling that of the CAIR-backed American fatwa condemning attacks on innocent civilians without defining “innocent”: what constitutes attacking “blindly”? Is a focused, targeted attack somehow acceptable?

French police made 395 arrests last night as riots intensified for the 11th consecutive night, with violence and fire engulfing towns from the North to the Mediterranean. In the impoverished suburbs and satellite towns around Paris, where the unrest began on October 27, churches, schools and warehouses were set alight. At least 1,408 vehicles were destroyed, many more than on previous nights, and the random attacks have spread into the heart of the city. In Grigny, south of the capital, a gang of around 200 youths are reported to have lured police into a housing estate before opening fire with...