Thread: Intifada in France

http://www.nysun.com/article/22526

Intifada in France

New York Sun Editorial
November 4, 2005

If President Chirac thought he was going to gain peace with the Muslim community in France by taking an appeasement line in the Iraq war, it certainly looks like he miscalculated. Today the streets of the French capital are looking more like Ramallah and less like the advanced, sophisticated, gay Paree image Monsieur Chirac likes to portray to the world, and the story, which is just starting to grip the world's attention, is full of ironies. One is tempted to suggest that Prime Minister Sharon send a note cautioning Monsieur Chirac about cycles of violence.

Back in the 1990s, the French sneered at America for the Los Angeles riots. As the Chicago Sun-Times reported in 1992: "the consensus of French pundits is that something on the scale of the Los Angeles riots could not happen here, mainly because France is a more humane, less racist place with a much stronger commitment to social welfare programs." President Mitterrand, the Washington Post reported in 1992, blamed the riots on the "conservative society" that Presidents Reagan and Bush had created and said France is different because it "is the country where the level of social protection is the highest in the world."

How the times have changed. Muslims in Paris's suburbs are out shooting at police and firefighters, burning cars and buildings, and throwing rocks at commuter trains. Even children are out on the streets - it was reported that a 10-year-old was arrested. The trigger for the riots was the electrocution of two teenagers last Thursday, which the rioters say came following a police chase, a charge the police deny. But even if the charge by the rioters is true, that the police are culpable in the deaths of the two youths, the fact that such an incident would spark a riot is a sign of something deeper at work - no doubt France's failure to integrate its immigrant Muslim community.

It turns out that France's Muslim community lives in areas rampant with crime, poverty, and unemployment, much the fault of France's prized welfare system. There are those of us who spent part of the 1980s in Europe, supporting the idea, among others from the Reagan era, that immigration was a virtue for a country and that the racial or religious background of the immigrants did not matter. We maintain that view. But immigration into a country with a dirigiste economy is a recipe for trouble, which is why supporters of immigration into France have long warned of the need for liberalization.

Part of France's problem is that it has defaulted on those measures. The lack of labor market flexibility and other socialist policies have created unemployment at nearly 10%, most of which falls among immigrants. And part stems from the fact that France's estimated 5 million Muslims, out of a population of 60 million, are led by mostly foreign radical imams. Only belatedly has the French state started taking action, pressing for clerics to be taught in France. All this is compounded by the image France projects of itself to its Muslims, which one can surmise is the reason why Muslims see rioting as the solution to any grievance.

It's a barely kept secret that Mr. Chirac led the opposition to the Iraq war out of fear of how his Muslim population would react. This fear is a big part of why France portrays itself as America's counterweight and why it criticizes Israel at every turn and coddled the terrorist Yasser Arafat right up to his death. This doesn't elicit thanks from Muslim radicals in France. It turns out to project an image of weakness. Unsurprisingly when faced with some unhappiness they believe they can pressure the French state into submission.

A number of observers of the French scene have looked at population trends and suggested that France is on its way to becoming a Muslim country (one that would, let it be noted, be armed with hydrogen bombs). Some react to this by suggesting a halt to immigration and even expulsion. The better approach is to impose law and order, more speedily to reform the burdensome welfare state, and start integrating the Muslim community. France could also help itself by dispatching troops to help battle the radical Islamists in Iraq, thereby sending a message to Muslims at home and abroad that France is on the side of those Muslims, the majority no doubt, who want to live in peace.

A number of observers of the French scene have looked at population trends and suggested that France is on its way to becoming a Muslim country (one that would, let it be noted, be armed with hydrogen bombs). Some react to this by suggesting a halt to immigration and even expulsion. The better approach is to impose law and order, more speedily to reform the burdensome welfare state, and start integrating the Muslim community. France could also help itself by dispatching troops to help battle the radical Islamists in Iraq, thereby sending a message to Muslims at home and abroad that France is on the side of those Muslims, the majority no doubt, who want to live in peace.

The New York Sun is clearly a Globalist newspaper.

If this isn't a twist the facts and spin them for the Globbies, then I don't know what would be.

FRANCE defeated the EU Constitution and told the Globbies to take a hike.

FRANCE closed its borders and has virtually ground immigration to a halt.

FRANCE is deporting as many as they possibly can since the London Bombings.

We know now why France couldn't go to Iraq if it wanted to, and now that we've been in Iraq and need to come home ourselves we know now why they were right in advising us not to go in the first place.

This doesn't detract from the great job our people are doing in Iraq. We have given Iraq a Great Gift of Freedom which we hope they will hold dear and protect.

BUT that isn't why we invade countries.

And it appears that is the only outcome for having done so.

For the New York Sun to even suggest that France with an obviously very tightly-wound Muslim population should lend us a hand in Iraq, is political blasphemy and complete insanity.

AS you might well know I am a supporter of France, as it is forever our friend in Liberty, and Freedom, as defined by French Philosophs of the 1850's and 60s.

The likes of Rousseau and Voltaire described the Natural Rights of Man that we so emulated and enjoyed as a Nation.

Remember who and what Britain is. The crown, corporatism, and privilege, over the Rights of Man.

What France endures now, we will get in spades. I wish them well in their struggle. They who riot against France should be deported post haste, as they have not the tradition or conception to live in a society like it.

VIVE LA FRANCE!!!! cheers glenn

And naturalglenn I could not agree with you more!!

France has its ways which annoys many Americans, but to them we owe our liberty, its concept and its reality.

They sent ships and troops during our Revolutionary Struggle, when it would have been much easier to avoid us altogether.

They are indeed our "Friends in Liberty"!

Vive La France and Long Live the USA!!

Judy said:
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(...)France has its ways which annoys many Americans, but to them we owe our liberty, its concept and its reality. (....)

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That seems like a bit of stretch. Sure, they did help when it served their own purpose.


We owe our liberty to OURSELVES. We have liberty in spite of France's history of surrendering it.




Best of luck to them, I hope they crack down hard on these thugs and rebels.......before they lose control of their nukes. It's a whole new ball game then.

pa

Sadly, we can not pat ourselves on the back for our liberty and freedom. We've been giving it up since the day the Founding Fathers ensured it for us. Granted there were problems that needed to be worked out over time and circumstance and here Americans proved they had the "Right Stuff" in the area of civil rights and equality.

We have much more to do in that area and others as well and requires correcting the damage a little group called "Globalists" have caused our nation through their plots and schemes during the past 20 years starting with grinding this illegal immigration nonsense to a screeching halt; getting Traitors out of the White House and US Congress; and learning that as Americans our work is never done which means we can never again blindly trust our leaders who will surely betray us and our nation when left unchecked and adored for their "cuteness" in lieu of "character" on television.

We now have to read, read, read....and know these people from much more than a 30 second ad before we decide to entrust our nation to them.