Paris Riots Not About Islam
I spent a bit of time last weekend with two scholars from France, and the topic of the riots came up.In the US media, the riots have been marked with a "Muslim" label. The Nov. 14 Newsweek edition even asked "Will the riots swell the ranks of the jihadists in Europe?"
Now, laicist (secular) France has had its beef with French Muslims before, most notably with regard to the famous headscarf affair.
Nevertheless, according to these two Frenchmen, the recent riots really had nothing to do with Islam. Yes, the government trotted out various Muslim leaders to tell the kids that burning cars is forbidden by Islam (duh!). But no European analyst or journalist ever seriously considered the riots to be related to Muslim concerns over the "War on Terror[ism]."
Why, then, the US media misunderstanding/lie? It might have something to do with the fact that large segments of the US media have been drafted into the US military.
posted by John Schaefer @ 12:49 PM
2 Comments:
I agree John. I've been skeptical about it all and think some agent provacateurs (to use a little bit o' francais) were involved. Wouldn't surprise me.
What's really scary (as I commented in a previous posting) is the baldness of the French government's assertions that these immigrants don't fit in France. That's another thing these French guys said: LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa came up from the barrio. There is hope for immigrants in America. No hope exists for these young immigrants.
They say this even though Sarkozy himself, as his name suggests, is the son of a Hungarian father and a Greek and Jewish mother. This is guy who wants to "Americanize" French politics (no doubt in the worst way) and who does so by calling the rioters "scum."
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