The difference between the Reuters headline and mine epitomizes the difficulty the French have in facing the real dimensions of this problem. For it is ultimately not a problem of disaffected youth who just need jobs and money, but of youth who consider the French government a foreign power, and one that ultimately must be replaced by a very different kind of government. Bat Ye’or in Eurabia has demonstrated that the French for over 30 years now have allowed for massive immigration without making any move to assimilate the immigrants. Up until the hijab ban their Islamic identity was not only unchallenged but encouraged — partly out of ignorance of how the Sharia impulse conflicts with the Western societal model of pluralism. Now they are reaping the fruit. “French youths riot for seventh night running,” from Reuters, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
PARIS (Reuters) – Violence broke out in Paris suburbs for the seventh night running overnight on Thursday after French youths set fire to dozens of cars.
The continuing unrest compounds pressure on Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin’s government, which has promised to restore order but is battling to paper over differences between ministers over the best way to tackle the unrest.
Youths went on the rampage in a total of nine areas in poor suburbs ringing the French capital to the north and the east, setting alight about 40 cars, two buses, and dustbins, a local authority official said.
Hundreds of police were deployed to control the disturbances, which also damaged a shopping centre in Bobigny, to the northeast of Paris, and to at least one primary school.
Unrest was first sparked in Clichy-sous-Bois last week after two teenagers were electrocuted while apparently fleeing police during a local disturbance.
It has since spread to other areas in the Parisian suburbs, forcing itself to the top of the government’s agenda and prompting Villepin to cancel a trip to Canada on Wednesday.
Media attention on the unrest has been intense because it highlighted the bitter rivalry between Villepin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of 2007 presidential elections, particularly after Sarkozy called the protesting youths “scum”….
The opposition has seized on such signs of discord and accused the government of drift and of failing to tackle the underlying reasons for the riots.
The unrest in the northern and eastern suburbs, heavily populated by North African and black African minorities, have been fuelled by frustration among youths in the area over their failure to get jobs and recognition in French society.