Paris
Aziz P
There is much heat generated from the fires in Paris. And not just that from burning cars, mind you. Any student of history can look at the Parisian civil unrest and see reflections of a thousand incidents of urban rioting by an alienated immigrant or minority underclass. However, for the polemically inclined, the fires are themselves kindling for an entrenchment of the attitudes that led to such profound alienation in the first place.
However, I think that there is indeed authentic analysis of the Parisian rioting to be found elsewhere. This Washington Post article is a good start:
While French politicians say the violence now circling and even entering the capital of France and spreading to towns across the country is the work of organized criminal gangs, the residents of Le Blanc-Mesnil know better. Many of the rioters grew up playing soccer on Rezzoug's field. They are the children of baggage handlers at nearby Charles de Gaulle International Airport and cleaners at the local schools.
"It's not a political revolution or a Muslim revolution," said Rezzoug. "There's a lot of rage. Through this burning, they're saying, 'I exist, I'm here.' "
Such a dramatic demand for recognition underscores the chasm between the fastest growing segment of France's population and the staid political hierarchy that has been inept at responding to societal shifts. The youths rampaging through France's poorest neighborhoods are the French-born children of African and Arab immigrants, the most neglected of the country's citizens. A large percentage are members of the Muslim community that accounts for about 10 percent of France's 60 million people.
One of Rezzoug's "kids" — the countless youths who use the sports facilities he oversees — is a husky, French-born 18-year-old whose parents moved here from Ivory Coast. At 3 p.m. on Saturday, he'd just awakened and ventured back onto the streets after a night of setting cars ablaze.
"We want to change the government," he said, a black baseball cap pulled low over large, chocolate-brown eyes and an ebony face. "There's no way of getting their attention. The only way to communicate is by burning."
There is plenty of first-hand anecdotal evidence that lends some nuance to the situation on the ground. For example, Jérôme at the European Tribune provides some perspective, pointing out that this is not some apocalyptic "End of France" scenario, but rather a symptom of an underlying sickness and mistakes by the French government (for example: both police budgets and social activity programs have been cut heavily). Also, see Tim at Balloon Juice, whose wife is French and just returned from Paris. He makes the key point that these rioters rage not because they are muslim, but because they are french.
See Also Greg at Belgravia Dispatch, who offers his own lengthy and reasoned analysis of the political ramifications and likely outcomes. Greg is no apologist for muslim terror, but in his assessment there is a failure of society, not faith, at work here. I fully agree with his prescription that every rioter - no matter how young - must be prosecuted under maximum extent of the law. But "fixing" what is wrong with France is not as easy as banning more headscarves. It will require hard decisions about the economy and a repudiation of the stifling business environment which strangle opportunity and deny economic entry and participation to the under class. As Greg puts it,
It's time to shine a strong light right there at home, put aside the defensive, diversionary pseudo-narratives and deceptions, and get to the hard work of putting the nation on a better course (particularly the dismal employment picture). If not, openings to more radical avenues will likely result--whether of a rightist or leftist variety (more likely the former, I'd say).
But what of those who insist that Islam must be relevant in some way? Well, as far as cause, they are simply wrong. But their dogmatic insistence obscures the very real threat that these riots provide as an opportunity for Islamists to capitalize upon. Francis Fukuyama sounds the alarm for European home-grown Islamism in a much more restrained and productive fashion that the "Eurabia" rantings of Bat Ye'or. The antidote is more freedom, not less; more opportunity, not less. As Theodore Dalyrymple wrote in his now classic essay about the French immigrant ghettoes:
...among the third of the population of the cités that is of North African Muslim descent, there is an option that the French, and not only the French, fear. For imagine yourself a youth in Les Tarterets or Les Musiciens, intellectually alert but not well educated, believing yourself to be despised because of your origins by the larger society that you were born into, permanently condemned to unemployment by the system that contemptuously feeds and clothes you, and surrounded by a contemptible nihilistic culture of despair, violence, and crime. Is it not possible that you would seek a doctrine that would simultaneously explain your predicament, justify your wrath, point the way toward your revenge, and guarantee your salvation...? Would you not seek a "worthwhile" direction for the energy, hatred, and violence seething within you, a direction that would enable you to do evil in the name of ultimate good? It would require only a relatively few of like mind to cause havoc.
Prescient, but hardly eerily so, of Rezzoug's "kids" quoted above, eh? France has every right to require its citizens to be French. But every Frenchman - regardless of origin or creed - must be given a genuine share of Liberté, Egalité, and Fraternité.
One of the complications is that French law regarding citizenship isn't the same as in the United States. Merely being born in France doesn't automatically make you a French citizen.
For people whose parents were not French citizens to be become a French citizen they must be naturalized regardless of where they were born. Naturalization requires a command of the French language (among other things).
So although many of the young people who are rioting may consider themselves to be French, many of the French do not.
After more than 1,000 deaths and the discovery of weapons training going on at Islamic schools last year, that is no longer the way they characterize it.
Evidently marauding youth in France firebombed a couple Christian churches last night just because they aren't getting their share of Liberté, Egalité, and Fraternité.
I hope your right.
I hate to be an American triumphalist but really the problem is at its core a difference in what coitizenship really means, as Dave points out.
France has incentivized Islamic radicalism, much the way welfare in the US incentivized ethnic gangs; the two are really versions of the same fascistic xenophobic philosophy. In both cases they're fueled by drug sales and the need for respect. Minimum wage jobs don't get you respect when not working pays the same.
But under a social welfare umbrella, those drives can be trouble. Government handouts don't remove them. If there are no jobs, if young males can't find something to do, they'll make something to do. And as they're usually not experienced or mature enough to make smart decisions, their decisions fall into a few groups:
1. They do something inventive or creative or industrious on their own initiative. This happens a lot. It also never makes the news.
2. They do something random and stupid and possibly destructive. That will make the news, unless it becomes so common that people would rather ignore it.
3. They fall into a peer group that provides them with things to do. The peer group might be inventive or destructive. Again, the news will be all about the destructive ones.
4. They fall under the influence of an older mentor figure who provides them with things to do. Again, this might be productive or destructive, but we'll only hear about the destructive ones.
So there are lots of ways that youthful energy can turn into a problem. As the old saying goes, idle hands are the devil's playthings. Merely taking care of their physical needs doesn't take care of the mental and emotional structure these youths need to grow up. The really sad part is that I think many on the right and the left understand this, but they can't agree on what to do about it. So just handing out the checks is the easy answer -- that doesn't work.
I under stand what Dave and Aziz mean when they say these riots are not related to Islam. Yet at the same time, I think there is a common root cause (much as I hate to use that term) between Islamic extremism and the riots in France. Many Islamic societies have had a similar social structure, where young males were supported but had nothing to occupy their time. That led some of them to Islamic extremism. In France, it has led other young males to ennui, and then protest, and then riots.
And no, that has nothing to do with their being Muslim. Similar dynamics have played out in many races and cultures.
"We want to change the government," he said, a black baseball cap pulled low over large, chocolate-brown eyes and an ebony face. "There's no way of getting their attention. The only way to communicate is by burning."
Awww, how cute.
Despite his big brown eyes, I have absolutely no sympathy for this young adult. I hope he goes to jail for a very long time.
I do have sympathy for someone like Talal Khalil:
Seven-year-old Talal Khalil jumps to the window at every sound from the outside.
"It is very scary," he said. "Every night they set fire to cars."
Talal wants to be a firefighter when he grows up, "so I can put out the fires of the burning cars."
..and these immigrants who describe the drug cartels that employ these 'disadvantaged' youths:
"I'm sure there are drug dealers and Islamic radicals at work," said a middle-aged woman who requested anonymity. "Drugs are everywhere. They've arrested Islamic radicals nearby here."
A social worker who also withheld his name said some rioters seemed linked to the drug trade because they "drive nice cars and use mobile telephones I couldn't afford to buy.
"When the government is determined to fight this underground economy, there's bound to be resistance," he said. "There is no headquarters organizing this, but they seem to be coordinating their activities among themselves by phone."
The charge that Islamist radicals were trying to exploit the unrest was a difficult one for local Muslims to handle, he said, because many were working to prevent unrest and admitting there were radicals in the crowds would discredit their community.
I agree that immigrants should be completely integrated into French society - that means equal economic opportunity, equal respect for religious beliefs, equal rights for immigrant men and women, and equal police, ambulance and fire protection services.
Since these arsonist/rebels are attacking the police, the fire department, ambulance workers, churches, the local economy and women, I have to assume that destroying liberté, egalité, and fraternité is their goal.
That's a lot less true now. Even less so around the big cities where most immigrants have settled. But attitudes change a lot slower than that.
There have been movements in the United States to make it an ethnic state, too. Particularly in the 1850's (check the Know-Nothings), and in the 1890's, and in the 1920's. We may be swinging that direction again.
What Europeans further fail to recognize is that we've had a higher immigration rate, a higher percent of immigrants within our population, and greater diversity in our population for our entire history than they have right now. Imperfect as we are (and we are) we're the ones with the experience in this area and the Europeans should be paying closer attention to our experience.
And equal responsibility under the law, and equal punishment for transgressions. Not more, and not less. And it will be interesting to see which way France goes. Some are predicting a crackdown that goes too far; others are predicting a wrist-slap that doesn't go far enough. I can't predict, just hope that they'll follow the middle path.
Let me be clear: in my comment above, I discussed welfare as a root cause for the riots. In no way do I think that excuses the rioters, and they should suffer full punishment for their actions. In any bad social situation, you'll find people who work to make it better, and people who work to make it worse. The situation may need correction by society; but the individuals are still responsible for their reactions to it.
Why ask Why?
Put the damn fire out first and THEN figure out the "why"s of the situation.
We saw a similar thing happen to NOLA during Katrina: Various wags asking why people were looting as the waters rose instead of moving the people out of New Orleans and THEN fingerpointing.
Law and order is one of the fundamental requirements of society. When it breaks down, everything else doesn't matter until it's restored.
As for inequality, I agree with Ralph Adams Cram, architect of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine: "Inequality is the first law written in the Book of Man." The only way to make everybody equal is to level everyone down to the lowest common denominator, to destroy all wealth, all genius, all greatness, all beauty, all civilization. Free men and women are not equal and equal men and women are not free.
France is France. If you don't want to speak French (the most beautiful language in the world, in my opinion), then don't go to France, don't live there. Love it or leave it. The French need to be more elitist, more exclusionary, more chauvinist. France was once the center of our Western high culture. Now, it has become a dumping ground for the world's worst trash. Back in the 1970s, a man named Jean Raspail wrote a novel, The Camp of the Saints, in which he predicted today's debacle. He was, of course, he was smeared as a "racist" by the Politically Correct (i.e., by the subversive rats who are eating away at our vitals). Political Correctness will destroy us from within unless we destroy it.
Nothing will save France and the West short of a Counter-Revolution. France must return to the Catholic Faith which made her great, the Faith of Charles Martel, of Richard Coeur de Leon, of St. Louis, of St. Jeanne d'Arc, the Faith that built the Cathedrals of Mont St. Michel, Rheims, Chartres, Notre Dame de Paris. Restore Throne and Altar.
WHY PARIS IS BURNING
is the title of the opinion piece in the NY Post by Amir Taheri. It wasn't my question. Perhaps the link isn't working but it does on my computer. There is no basic disagreement here.
I know, I wasn't criticizing you. Sorry to imply that I was.
My criticism is aimed at the authorities' failure to establish order.
The same goes for the Dalrymple quote. The man goes on (and on) about nihlism and despair, but nobody talks about voting as a method of social change.
So these thugs are either collectively lying around on their asses, not voting, or they have voted and they decided to keep all the free goodies passed out by the current French system.
There is no good excuse for the violence, nor good reason. Those people are literally barbarians living amidst civilized people.
I'd also like to take a moment to point out that young, native-born, white college graduates are having as nearly as much trouble getting jobs over there as well. The French have double-digit unemployment; think about that compared to elements in our society who were having kittens about 5.5% unemployment here not too long ago.
And (as usual, heh) I have to disagree with Steve the Lesbian Doorstop Anarchist: part of the problem in France is that the French have already adopted strategy. If the froggies weren't so bloody snobby about their "superior" culture, and had truly assmilated the North African immigrants, a lot of these problems would not exist, or would have been less critical.
The difference between the French and the American system is that us Merkans just require you to understand the Constitution, speak and read English, and behave like a civilized adult. That's it. The frogs, on the other hand, go much further than that. They expect "real" immigrants to become 100% French, which by corollary means 0% old country.
Instead what they did was dump all the immigrants into ghettos (in the original sense of the word).
It's ironic that the home of "Liberty and Equality" has deliberately built a two-tier system in the classic Marxist style, with the requisite bourgeois and proletarian elements.
In other words, we'll have a two-state solution.
America has a political system (the Constitution) and some popular sports (baseball, football). All that can be called "culture" in America (including our language and also the philosophy that gave rise to the Constitution) is borrowed entirely from England and the European Continent. America's greatest novelist was a Russian Jewess. Europe is Greece and America is Rome. As Dean pointed out a while ago, while Greece (like Europe) produced mythology and art and philosophy, Rome (like America) produced law and technology and a strong military force. Europe is the oyster, America is the shell.
The French do wrong to allow their unassimilable immigrants to congregate in their so-called "ghettoes". They need to expel these rats from France entirely.
What the French need to do is restore the two primary Estates, Nobility and Priesthood, Castle and Cathedral, Time and Space.
Modern civilization requires a certain average level of intelligence in its citizens, to be successful. What is that level, in terms of IQ? An average of 90? That is a best guess. Anything below that and the society will fail in its quest to be modern.
The average IQ has to up high enough to provide enough doctors, engineers, lawyers, businesspeople, scientists, teachers, and competent technocrats. Without all that, you have subsaharan africa or Bangladesh.
Even when the citizen is basically criminal in nature, with no desire or aptitude to be anything but criminal, the welfare state attempts to accomodate the citizen. This is clearly happening in France, a most accomodating welfare state.
Monsieur de Villepin will give the criminal a small piece of France for his own, to do with as he wishes. Pity the persons who must submit to the criminal, but anything for peace, n'est pas?
au contraire, mon ami, we the populace have culture, they have the same old, same old, I like this stuff which may have some value, but I mostly like it because it makes me feel superior to like it.
Its hard to overestimate the force of snobbery in human affairs. I think in the triad of evil, it ranks behind Stupidity, and ahead of Malice.
That said, your plan or Casey's plan would no doubt be superior to whatever piece of lame brain cowardice the French are going to achieve. I say they will neither defend their culture, or open their gates, but will instead proclaim their weakness, and beg for mercy, and offer tribute.
What do they need to do? Law and order. Looters will be shot on sight. Bodies to be displayed in front of the police station. Curfew in affected areas is 24 hr.. All non-medical emergency movement or non-law enforcement movement is banned in affected areas. Violation of curfew is looting.
After law and order is established, then decrease welfare, and open up the economy. Enforce French laws with severity. If a member of a targetted group of troublemakers steps out of line once, then come down on him like a nuke from orbit. Everyone else gets only very hard-nosed treatment for lawbreaking.
Reduce the number of laws, but enforce them with no exceptions.
In other words, Clint Eastwood comes to Paris. And it would work. An Old West sherriff enforcing safety, and contracts, and letting the rest slide would do the job. But they won't do it. Because that might mean some pansy little poseurs in the gov't actually had to work for a living.
Excellent plan.
As to culture, however, I must emphatically disagree. A "snob" is simply a nasty name given by the envious to one who is humble enough to recognize that he has superiors and acts accordingly. An anti-snob is an envious demogogue who demands that all be levelled down to same gutter in the name of equality. If there is a root of all evil, it is certainly envy.
Popular "culture" is ephemera, forgotten within a decade or so. Real culture, the culture created and valued by truly superior men and women, is eternal.
The only permissible equality is before the law -- and nowhere else and in no other sense. The policeman has to treat the composer and the bum as equals when he makes arrests. When he goes home, takes off his uniform, and listens to some music, he takes off also the legal fiction of equality.
Maitland Graves, in his The Art of Color and Design (1951), has proved conclusively that there are indeed objective, absolute standards of taste, a hierarchy.
So, long-term conflict or no long-term conflict, I do not wish to insult you gratuitously or otherwise.
My attitude toward citizenship and belonging in this country precisely mirrors that of the French. If you were born outside the United States, your children may well be born here.
But unless you have raised them to be Americans, meaning that they participate in the normative American culture, are educated in our public or private school systems with English as their first language, then I do not consider them Americans, but as foreigners of choice who are living in our country as such.
This applies regardless of your religion, or no religion at all, like me; regardless of your race, because I am not a racist; regardless of your country of origin. But I am in all ways a culturalist, and it is to the American culture that I adhere in all things.
For anyone to claim that the present riots all over France are not related to the fact that the rioters primarily are Muslims -- and mostly muslim Arabs -- is bullshit that anyone watching the news can see through. France is predominantly a christian country. In fact, it was the very core of the christian civilization that in its raw early stage of development beat of the great arab Muslim invasion of western Europe early in the 8th century.
No westerner who values his or her attachments to that civilization will lightly side with those attempting to islamize large parts of France. For much the same reason that no Arabs anywhere will allow Christianity to take root on an equal footing with Islam in any of the arab states.
I certainly need not say more about the arab and islamic attitudes toward the permanent return of the jewish nation to their original homeland in what they refer to as "Yehuda" and what the Arabs refer to as "Falastin".
And the recent comments by the chief of state of islamic Iran that Israel should be "wiped of the map" leave no doubt whatsoever that unless some serious changes take place in the islamic world toward judaism in general and the state of Israel in particular, then the first real nuclear war is slated to take place the moment Iran is able to assemble their first nuclear weapons and their leadership determines upon a death-ride to their paradise by using these on the jewish state. In any case, the jewish nation has at least as much right to take root in southwest Asia, as your people had to implant Islam into the heart of a Hindu kingdom, or, for that matter, to bring Islam into Europe and the western hemisphere.
Inasmuch as Israel produces enough weapons-grade plutonium each year to assemble an estimated five new thermonuclear weapons and probably has some 200 in storage, little will be left of the middle east if anything approaching such an armageddon takes place. It is time for Islam to call of the Jew-hatred, before it consumes not just the Jews, but much of southwest Asia, including all the islamic holy places. So instead of dismissing Bat Ye'or's writings about "Eurarabia" as mere ranting, it might be better for you to study life from her own experiences of dhimmitude in muslim Egypt.
As for here in the West, even the non-Christians among us feel a surge of pride in the retellings of the story of the Crusaders of the 11th and 12th centuries, in their struggle -- which admittedly was sometimes bloody and unjust -- to create what some of the people of that era thought would be their kingdom of heaven and others perhaps saw as the first overseas colonies of western european civilization.
So that is where things stand. The French -- the REAL French -- are beginning to view the Muslims on their soil as a non-French, alien, disaffected and increasingly divisive and dangerous presence. Similar feelings are developing in the Netherlands, Spain, and other places in Europe that have experienced substantive islamic immigration in the post-colonialist decades.
All of us should seek peace wherever possible, because the alternative under modern military circumstances can sometimes lead to massive destruction at a level beyond human imagination. Accomplishing this, in the face of what most of us now recognize as a "clash of civilizations" not far different from what professor Huntington described, may prove difficult. No less so for islamic southern Asia than for the christian and secular christian West.
But doing your part in all this involves the necessity of coming to a basic understanding that the French nation wishes to remain french-speaking and Christian for much the same reason that the Saudi kingdom wishes to remain Arab-speaking and Muslim.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
The respect is mutual - as is perhaps our areement to disagree on certain issues. But reading your comment above, I only disagree with maybe 25%. Which 25% is the rub, of course :) I dont think though that I or anyone in my community (or even anyone in my circle of acquaintance in the wider muslim-American community beyond) would fail to meet your basic criteria above.
Remember that european islam is a different thing than american islam. If theres one thing I seek to change your mind on, it's that. And it stems solely from the fact of opportunity versus colonialism as the driver for immigration.
"A reporter who spent last weekend in Clichy and its neighboring towns of Bondy, Aulnay-sous-Bois and Bobigny heard a single overarching message: The French authorities should keep out."
"All we demand is to be left alone," said Mouloud Dahmani, one of the local "emirs" engaged in negotiations to persuade the French to withdraw the police and allow a committee of sheiks, mostly from the Muslim Brotherhood, to negotiate an end to the hostilities."
Isn't that amazing ? The anarchists get ad lib violence in a democratic country and get defended by their emirs under the aegis of profound victimhood then announce:
"All we demand is to be left alone".
And where is the freedom and democracy in that position ?
Is that what Islam is about ?
Excellent.
I would also posit that civilizations, epochs and history in general are rarely so neat as to lend themselves to all-inclusive categorizations. Therefore, the maghrib of one era does not necessarily mark the fajr of another.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
As for having the destruction of "liberté, egalité, and fraternité" as their goal, perhaps they only want to have the same rules applied to them as apply to "pure" French citizens?
If I recall my history correctly, a certain Tea Party in Boston was conducted because second class citizens were facing a tax that first class citizens--those resident in Britain--did not have to pay. Those insurrectionists were not calling for the overthrow of a British way of life, or even the British government. Instead, they wanted to be treated as the full human beings they felt themselves to be. Good thing none of those Bostonians were Muslim. Had they been, it would have been portayed as a "jihad".
As an aside, I was amused when a Parisian cab driver explained the inscriptions on the side of a building. It read, "Liberté. Egalité. Fraternité." He said you had to read it exactly as written, including punctuation, to understand. The French word for "period" is the same word for "not/none at all".
Is that why they're burning churches and synagogues? Is that why they're beating old men to death, torching handicapped women and chasing firemen with pickaxes?
In their own words, this is what they want:
Plans for further attacks have made their appearances in different blogs -- like that from "Brahim." "Nice work people," he writes. "The cops are petrified of us, everything must burn, starting Monday, the operation 'Midnight Sun' starts, tell everyone else, rendezvous for Momo and Abdul in Zone 4 ... jihad Islamia Allah Akhbar."
User "Samir's" message is just as threatening. "You don't really think that we're going to stop now? Are you stupid? It will continue, non-stop. We aren't going to let up. The French won't do anything and soon, we will be in the majority here."
Like you, French Maoists and Leninists also believe that these arsonist/freedom fighters should be admired. They say:
..History is made by the masses, and one is either with them or against them.
Like you, these Marxists show absolutely no sympathy for the victims of this 'revolution'. Why is that?
with regard to my blog's byline, it is a rorschach test of sorts. I challenge my muslim readers to interpret it as the maghrib of the age of tyranny. and a reflection of the civilization that once was and does muslims no good to pine after today.
Mary @ exit zero: did you just dare to suggest that I admire the rioters in France?
i encourage you to clarify yourself with regard to that statement.
If you're referencing Ayn Rand here, I would consider her to be a great writer but perhaps not a great novelist. There's a subtle distinction. (That and I'd prefer to give the title of Greatest American Novel to To Kill a Mockingbird, and the title of novelist to Twain. I've always been a sucker for Twain; he puts such insightful gems under the guise of humor.)
Mary @ exit zero: did you just dare to suggest that I admire the rioters in France?
Sorry, Aziz. No, I didn't mean to suggest that at all. I started out with a quote from John_B, so it was addressed to him, but I should have included his name in the comment, just to be clear.
I was annoyed by what I believed to be his comparison of the French arsonists to the Founding fathers. But, perhaps he didn't mean to make that comparison, and I was wrong about that too.
I hope I am.
Or it might be appropriate for such an iron-willed woman to say that she raised herself.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
On the general level, I consider systematic disenfranchisement a good reason to start shooting people, provided you select the appropriate targets.
Politicians, for example, are always a good choice. :)
Let's turn more politicians into statesmen!
And let's hand out five history-geek points to the first person IDs the man who originated that simile... Heh.