CANBERRA: Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told
on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted
radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. A day after
a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia at
a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his
ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown.
Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that
some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did
not accept that Australia was a secular state and its laws were made by
parliament. "If those are not your values, if you want a country which
has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you,"
he said on national television. "I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching
that there are two laws governing people in Australia, one the
Australian law and another the Islamic law, that that is false.
If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts,
democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go
to another country which practices it, perhaps, then, that's a better
option," Costello said. Asked whether he meant radical clerics would be
forced to leave, he said those with dual citizenship could possibly be
asked to move to the other country.
Education Minister Brendan Nelson later tol d reporters that Muslims
who did not want to accept local values should "clear off".
"Basically, people who don't want to be Australians, and they don't
want to live by Australian values and understand them, well then they can
basically clear off," he said. Separately, Howard angered some
Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spies monitoring
the nation's mosques.
***************
HELLOOOOOOW! AMERICANS.....ARE YOU LISTENING?
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Bush Bashes Rove
Bush whacked
Rove on CIA leak
BY THOMAS M. DeFRANK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF
An exultant President Bush appeared to whisper to his top aide Karl Rove as they headed for Indiana in July.
WASHINGTON - An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair, sources told the Daily News.
"He made his displeasure known to Karl," a presidential counselor told The News. "He made his life miserable about this."
Bush has nevertheless remained doggedly loyal to Rove, who friends and even political adversaries acknowledge is the architect of the President's rise from baseball owner to leader of the free world.
As special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald nears a decision, perhaps as early as today, on whether to issue indictments in his two-year probe, Bush has already circled the wagons around Rove, whose departure would be a grievous blow to an already shell-shocked White House staff and a President in deep political trouble.
Asked if he believed indictments were forthcoming, a key Bush official said he did not know, then added: "I'm very concerned it could go very, very badly."
"Karl is fighting for his life," the official added, "but anything he did was done to help George W. Bush. The President knows that and appreciates that."
Other sources confirmed, however, that Bush was initially furious with Rove in 2003 when his deputy chief of staff conceded he had talked to the press about the Plame leak.
Bush has always known that Rove often talks with reporters anonymously and he generally approved of such contacts, one source said.
But the President felt Rove and other members of the White House damage-control team did a clumsy job in their campaign to discredit Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, the ex-diplomat who criticized Bush's claim that Saddam Hussen tried to buy weapons-grade uranium in Niger.
A second well-placed source said some recently published reports implying Rove had deceived Bush about his involvement in the Wilson counterattack were incorrect and were leaked by White House aides trying to protect the President.
"Bush did not feel misled so much by Karl and others as believing that they handled it in a ham-handed and bush-league way," the source said.
None of these sources offered additional specifics of what Bush and Rove discussed in conversations beginning shortly after the Justice Department informed the White House in September 2003 that a criminal investigation had been launched into the leak of CIA agent Plame's identity to columnist Robert Novak.
A White House spokesman declined to comment, citing the ongoing nature of Fitzgerald's investigation.
Rove on CIA leak
BY THOMAS M. DeFRANK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF
An exultant President Bush appeared to whisper to his top aide Karl Rove as they headed for Indiana in July.
WASHINGTON - An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair, sources told the Daily News.
"He made his displeasure known to Karl," a presidential counselor told The News. "He made his life miserable about this."
Bush has nevertheless remained doggedly loyal to Rove, who friends and even political adversaries acknowledge is the architect of the President's rise from baseball owner to leader of the free world.
As special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald nears a decision, perhaps as early as today, on whether to issue indictments in his two-year probe, Bush has already circled the wagons around Rove, whose departure would be a grievous blow to an already shell-shocked White House staff and a President in deep political trouble.
Asked if he believed indictments were forthcoming, a key Bush official said he did not know, then added: "I'm very concerned it could go very, very badly."
"Karl is fighting for his life," the official added, "but anything he did was done to help George W. Bush. The President knows that and appreciates that."
Other sources confirmed, however, that Bush was initially furious with Rove in 2003 when his deputy chief of staff conceded he had talked to the press about the Plame leak.
Bush has always known that Rove often talks with reporters anonymously and he generally approved of such contacts, one source said.
But the President felt Rove and other members of the White House damage-control team did a clumsy job in their campaign to discredit Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, the ex-diplomat who criticized Bush's claim that Saddam Hussen tried to buy weapons-grade uranium in Niger.
A second well-placed source said some recently published reports implying Rove had deceived Bush about his involvement in the Wilson counterattack were incorrect and were leaked by White House aides trying to protect the President.
"Bush did not feel misled so much by Karl and others as believing that they handled it in a ham-handed and bush-league way," the source said.
None of these sources offered additional specifics of what Bush and Rove discussed in conversations beginning shortly after the Justice Department informed the White House in September 2003 that a criminal investigation had been launched into the leak of CIA agent Plame's identity to columnist Robert Novak.
A White House spokesman declined to comment, citing the ongoing nature of Fitzgerald's investigation.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
British Muslim group declares new jihad
British Muslim group declares new jihad
A Ynetnews investigation has uncovered online recruitment of British Muslims for participation in terror attacks; 'We should give them another magnificent day in history' threatens one man
Yaakov Lappin
A declaration of war on Britain and the West is continuing to be issued by British Muslims in the United Kingdom, as the pro-jihad message of Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, recently banned from Britain, is echoed by his followers who have remained behind.
Bakri, who is now based in Beirut, once headed the al-Muhajiroun group, linked to the 2003 terror attack on the Mike’s Place Bar in Tel Aviv. The suicide bomber behind that attack was a British Muslim.
Using internet sermons, recordings, videos and documents, followers of Bakri, who say they are in touch with the Lebanon-based preacher, call on British Muslims to join al-Qaeda and to carry out acts of terrorism.
Ynetnews has monitored late night chat room sessions on the Paltalk chat network, used by Bakri six months ago to declare war on Britain.
“We’ve always had these two camps,” said the chat room’s administrator, “Mizaan,” in the early hours of Tuesday morning, in a room called “The Muslims in the UK.”
"9/11' was the best thing that happened to the Muslims" - message in the chat room
Mizaan, who told listeners “that is my real name,” said: “There is the camp of Islam and the camp of Kuffar (non-Muslim). Today we still have these two camps. And today there is the camp of Islam behind Sheikh Osama Bin Laden, the emir (leader) of jihad today, and we have the camp of kuffar led by George Bush with his cross. So yes we are two distinct groups, and we should never stand with the kuffar.”
“Islam is better than everything and it will rule over the whole world, whether the kuffar likes it or not,” declared Mizaan.
'It's not illegal'
“We should, all of us, glorify the terrorism. And we should incite religious hatred. Don’t worry… it’s not illegal for us to say that mujahadin (jihad fighters) on 9/11, were the magnificent 19, and it’s not illegal for us to say that Mohammad Sidique Khan (the suicide bomber who blew himself up in London) and the four on 7/7 (London attacks), that they were the fantastic four – now we can say so without any worry.”
“We will always glorify killing the kuffar in the name of Allah. To raid the kuffar in the name of Allah. Even if some women and children are caught in the raid by accident. They are part of them, it is not your fault,” said Mizaan.
“The kuffar wants to force their own homosexuality on the Muslims. The mujahadin have every right to hit back. So don’t be surprised if the mujahadin do another 7/7, and another 9/11,” he said.
'Give them another magnificent day'
“In fact, we should give them another magnificent day in history. Another fantastic four (the four London suicide bombers). We should hit them time after time, day after day, every single week, every single month, every single year, we should hit them from every side, from the left and the right. From the planes above them, and the trains below them, we should hit them every way we can.”
“Even if it’s just a man kuffar, if your target kills him, even if 20 women among them are killed by accident on the way, it is no problem. And that is what happened with the shahada (martyrs) when they went to raid,” said Mizaan.
Al-Qaeda Letter
'Final stage - war against Israel' / Yitzhak Benhorin
A letter found by U.S troops in Iraq sent by Bin Laden's deputy to Islamic insurgent leader in Iraq, reveals al-Qaeda's future strategies; according to the letter, terror against Israel is the final stage of al-Qaeda's plan to take control of the Middle East
Full Story
“So don’t think what happened on 7/7 or 9/11 was something new, no, that’s the Sunnah (sayings and actions of Muhammad). There’s never been jihad without casualties.”
A user in the room, “veiled flower,” eerily asked what a fiancé of a “mujahadin” should do if he was preparing to martyr himself. She was told by the speaker to encourage him as much as possible in order to assure herself “a place in jenna (heaven).”
Meanwhile, a recently reactivated website, al-Ghurabbaa, which has a UK domain web address, carries sermons given by Omar Bakri.
'The best way to die'
“The martyrdom operations in Palestine are so beautiful,” said Bakri in one recording available on the site.
“Let your death occur in the battlefield, this is the best way to die,” he said. “If you make yourself really available in jihad… Allah will accept you as shaheed (martyr) inshalla (with God’s help).”
“It is very important for us to remember, especially for those of us that are youth… whoever himself went to jihad, jenna (heaven) for him is inevitable.”
A document on the website entitled “the permissibility of self sacrifice operations” provides religious justification for suicide bomb attacks, stating that “for definite the one who wants to seek to be killed, must do an operation, to leave the mark - of the dead bodies, the defeated enemies. Whether your body is one piece or many, or the enemy's bodies are one piece or many. In a martyrdom operation, it is not possible that he should return unscathed, it is necessary that he will be harmed and will target to be killed in the operation,” reads the statement.
Another document tells readers that “terrorism is a part of Islam.”
It declares that “There is no such thing as an ‘innocent’ kafir, innocence is only applicable for the Muslims; do not say ‘innocent’ for the kafir.”
A professionally prepared video from the website defines the term ‘ghurabbaa’ as “strangers” who left their societies to wage jihad, and says modern ghurabaa are al-Qaeda terrorists.
“Go with them and join them as Allah has commanded,” says a message on the video, before showing images of the 9/11 terror attacks, and Osama Bin Laden, accompanied by sounds of machine gun fire and religious chanting.
Images of kidnapped hostages in Iraq who are later beheaded are also shown. “Oh Muslims, be with the terrorists!” exclaims the video, which ends with the question: “Will you be the ghurabbaa of the future?”
“I still study with Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad. He used to be in the UK with us, we used to study with him as much as we could. And inshalla (with God’s help) he’s my only sheikh,” said Mizaan. “He is doing very well in Lebanon,” he added.
Meanwhile, a new threat to European countries from the international jihad movement has also appeared on a website which frequently displays Islamist videos and declarations, infovlad.net.
One video, made by the "Global Islamic Media Front," which is al-Qaeda's propaganda wing, has recently appeared on the site displaying the British Isles engulfed in flames. "British citizens have to take the decision now," reads a message against the background of images of British forces in Iraq.
'Numerous targets'
Infovlad.net, which previously posted threats by a jihad group to attack Sweden, has now put up posters by an unknown group, "The Glory Brigades in Northern Europe," which shows a bloodied map of Denmark and a caption that reads: "Death will visit Denmark." Images of men with machine guns and explosive devices are seen next to a map of Denmark. Another poster warns that "the Mujahadin have numerous targets in Denmark," and displays images of trains and buildings in the Scandinavian country, alongside a photograph of explosives devices.
"Very soon you will regret this," reads a caption, possibly referring to a Danish newspaper's request to readers to send in drawings of Islam's prophet, Muhammad, a move that has infuriated Danish Muslims and prompted large demonstrations.
The 'Glory Brigades' also threatened the British capital in a jihad poster that reads: "New York, Madrid, London now it’s your turn. Target: London."
A Ynetnews investigation has uncovered online recruitment of British Muslims for participation in terror attacks; 'We should give them another magnificent day in history' threatens one man
Yaakov Lappin
A declaration of war on Britain and the West is continuing to be issued by British Muslims in the United Kingdom, as the pro-jihad message of Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, recently banned from Britain, is echoed by his followers who have remained behind.
Bakri, who is now based in Beirut, once headed the al-Muhajiroun group, linked to the 2003 terror attack on the Mike’s Place Bar in Tel Aviv. The suicide bomber behind that attack was a British Muslim.
Using internet sermons, recordings, videos and documents, followers of Bakri, who say they are in touch with the Lebanon-based preacher, call on British Muslims to join al-Qaeda and to carry out acts of terrorism.
Ynetnews has monitored late night chat room sessions on the Paltalk chat network, used by Bakri six months ago to declare war on Britain.
“We’ve always had these two camps,” said the chat room’s administrator, “Mizaan,” in the early hours of Tuesday morning, in a room called “The Muslims in the UK.”
"9/11' was the best thing that happened to the Muslims" - message in the chat room
Mizaan, who told listeners “that is my real name,” said: “There is the camp of Islam and the camp of Kuffar (non-Muslim). Today we still have these two camps. And today there is the camp of Islam behind Sheikh Osama Bin Laden, the emir (leader) of jihad today, and we have the camp of kuffar led by George Bush with his cross. So yes we are two distinct groups, and we should never stand with the kuffar.”
“Islam is better than everything and it will rule over the whole world, whether the kuffar likes it or not,” declared Mizaan.
'It's not illegal'
“We should, all of us, glorify the terrorism. And we should incite religious hatred. Don’t worry… it’s not illegal for us to say that mujahadin (jihad fighters) on 9/11, were the magnificent 19, and it’s not illegal for us to say that Mohammad Sidique Khan (the suicide bomber who blew himself up in London) and the four on 7/7 (London attacks), that they were the fantastic four – now we can say so without any worry.”
“We will always glorify killing the kuffar in the name of Allah. To raid the kuffar in the name of Allah. Even if some women and children are caught in the raid by accident. They are part of them, it is not your fault,” said Mizaan.
“The kuffar wants to force their own homosexuality on the Muslims. The mujahadin have every right to hit back. So don’t be surprised if the mujahadin do another 7/7, and another 9/11,” he said.
'Give them another magnificent day'
“In fact, we should give them another magnificent day in history. Another fantastic four (the four London suicide bombers). We should hit them time after time, day after day, every single week, every single month, every single year, we should hit them from every side, from the left and the right. From the planes above them, and the trains below them, we should hit them every way we can.”
“Even if it’s just a man kuffar, if your target kills him, even if 20 women among them are killed by accident on the way, it is no problem. And that is what happened with the shahada (martyrs) when they went to raid,” said Mizaan.
Al-Qaeda Letter
'Final stage - war against Israel' / Yitzhak Benhorin
A letter found by U.S troops in Iraq sent by Bin Laden's deputy to Islamic insurgent leader in Iraq, reveals al-Qaeda's future strategies; according to the letter, terror against Israel is the final stage of al-Qaeda's plan to take control of the Middle East
Full Story
“So don’t think what happened on 7/7 or 9/11 was something new, no, that’s the Sunnah (sayings and actions of Muhammad). There’s never been jihad without casualties.”
A user in the room, “veiled flower,” eerily asked what a fiancé of a “mujahadin” should do if he was preparing to martyr himself. She was told by the speaker to encourage him as much as possible in order to assure herself “a place in jenna (heaven).”
Meanwhile, a recently reactivated website, al-Ghurabbaa, which has a UK domain web address, carries sermons given by Omar Bakri.
'The best way to die'
“The martyrdom operations in Palestine are so beautiful,” said Bakri in one recording available on the site.
“Let your death occur in the battlefield, this is the best way to die,” he said. “If you make yourself really available in jihad… Allah will accept you as shaheed (martyr) inshalla (with God’s help).”
“It is very important for us to remember, especially for those of us that are youth… whoever himself went to jihad, jenna (heaven) for him is inevitable.”
A document on the website entitled “the permissibility of self sacrifice operations” provides religious justification for suicide bomb attacks, stating that “for definite the one who wants to seek to be killed, must do an operation, to leave the mark - of the dead bodies, the defeated enemies. Whether your body is one piece or many, or the enemy's bodies are one piece or many. In a martyrdom operation, it is not possible that he should return unscathed, it is necessary that he will be harmed and will target to be killed in the operation,” reads the statement.
Another document tells readers that “terrorism is a part of Islam.”
It declares that “There is no such thing as an ‘innocent’ kafir, innocence is only applicable for the Muslims; do not say ‘innocent’ for the kafir.”
A professionally prepared video from the website defines the term ‘ghurabbaa’ as “strangers” who left their societies to wage jihad, and says modern ghurabaa are al-Qaeda terrorists.
“Go with them and join them as Allah has commanded,” says a message on the video, before showing images of the 9/11 terror attacks, and Osama Bin Laden, accompanied by sounds of machine gun fire and religious chanting.
Images of kidnapped hostages in Iraq who are later beheaded are also shown. “Oh Muslims, be with the terrorists!” exclaims the video, which ends with the question: “Will you be the ghurabbaa of the future?”
“I still study with Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad. He used to be in the UK with us, we used to study with him as much as we could. And inshalla (with God’s help) he’s my only sheikh,” said Mizaan. “He is doing very well in Lebanon,” he added.
Meanwhile, a new threat to European countries from the international jihad movement has also appeared on a website which frequently displays Islamist videos and declarations, infovlad.net.
One video, made by the "Global Islamic Media Front," which is al-Qaeda's propaganda wing, has recently appeared on the site displaying the British Isles engulfed in flames. "British citizens have to take the decision now," reads a message against the background of images of British forces in Iraq.
'Numerous targets'
Infovlad.net, which previously posted threats by a jihad group to attack Sweden, has now put up posters by an unknown group, "The Glory Brigades in Northern Europe," which shows a bloodied map of Denmark and a caption that reads: "Death will visit Denmark." Images of men with machine guns and explosive devices are seen next to a map of Denmark. Another poster warns that "the Mujahadin have numerous targets in Denmark," and displays images of trains and buildings in the Scandinavian country, alongside a photograph of explosives devices.
"Very soon you will regret this," reads a caption, possibly referring to a Danish newspaper's request to readers to send in drawings of Islam's prophet, Muhammad, a move that has infuriated Danish Muslims and prompted large demonstrations.
The 'Glory Brigades' also threatened the British capital in a jihad poster that reads: "New York, Madrid, London now it’s your turn. Target: London."
How Long Before Europe Falls to Muslims?
http://www.aina.org/news/20051107100848.htm
Assyrian International News Agency
How Long Before Europe Falls to Muslims?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted GMT 11-7-2005 16:8:48 Send to Printer Close Window
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Liberals in America are trying to take over the White House and dictate to a sitting president who should be on his personal staff. The media follows the president to foreign soil to hound him about "Plamegate," and all the while, parts of Europe are coming unglued. The liberal media in America barely mentions it. The media carefully sidesteps the fact that the riots in France are Islam-driven. The riots in Denmark are barely mentioned. The Muslim riots will spread and demands for Muslim autonomy will be made. This is just the beginning of the war for Europe. The second phase of the Islamification of Europe has begun and all the mindless journalists care about is that "Scooter Libby" pled innocent at his first court hearing.
On the surface, it seems that the youth of Paris are just out raising hell and burning cars for the fun of it, but that isn't what is happening at all. The suburbs of Paris are burning and it isn't because of some bored kids. What no one seems to want to mention is the fact that is it angry Muslims who are burning the city every night. Cars are overturned and the violence is escalating. A woman on crutches exiting a bus was doused with gasoline and set ablaze. These "boys" have now moved from burning cars to burning people.
The story was reported that two Muslim boys were trying to avoid a police checkpoint and decided to hide in a high-voltage electric substation. The boys were killed when they touched something they should not have touched. The police deny that they were chasing the boys, but Muslims have used this as an excuse to tear up schools, trains, shops, and any car that dares venture near them and their "turf."
Islam seems to own the suburbs of Paris and it's unlikely it will give them back to France. It is equally unlikely that France will demand the suburbs be returned to French control. Chirac seems befuddled and unable to regain control of streets of his own country. This is just what Islam was hoping would happen.
Many French authorities seem bewildered and unable to deal with the uprising. What did they expect? When a country opens its borders and allows Muslims to pour in without demanding that they accept the local culture, riots should not have been a surprise. The vast majority of Muslims that have immigrated to European countries come with no intention of blending with the locals. They have come with a purpose and that purpose is to take over the country. Most Muslim immigrants gather together, live in poverty, are unemployed and living on the dole with nothing to do but reproduce, get angry, and be taught endlessly that Islam will make it better. Of all the countries in Europe, France has probably been the most accommodating. This is its reward.
France is witnessing a skirmish. A "feeling out" of what the French authorities will do and how this uprising will be dealt with. So far, the Muslims are winning. Some arrests have been made but it seems as though the French are just hoping the rioting Muslims will just get tired and go home. So far, that doesn't seem to be happening. The violence is spreading and along with the fire bombs, guns are being used.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin stated, "The return to calm and the restoration of order are the priority -- our absolute priority." Unfortunately, de Villepin offered no solution to the problem. What the French should do is deport each and every one of the rioters and their families back from whence they came--but they won't. That wouldn't be "politically correct." Meeting a crisis head-on just isn't the French way. The government will try to "reason" with the rioters to get in touch with their anger so that their anger can be understood. Muslims will make demands and those demands will be met. Round one: Islam wins.
The French will blame themselves for their lack of sensitivity to the Islamic way of life for the unrest. After consultations with Islamic leaders it will be decided that expecting Muslims to become French was an infringement on their rights. In the end, it will be the French that change, not the Muslims. Once again, Islam will be rewarded for violence and its cause will be advanced.
It is even worse in Arhus, Denmark. Muslim youth rioters in Arhus have openly declared war on the Danish government. The rioters chanted, "This land belongs to us!" Meeting with reporters, the spokesman told reporters that Muslims were tired of being oppressed and harassed. With their faces covered to hide their identities, they gave an ominous warning to the local police: "The police has to stay away. This is our area. We rule this place." And it seems they do.
The Danish paper, Jyllands Post, added fuel to the fire by daring to publish some editorial cartoons that involved Mohammed. Any insult to Mohammed or Islam is punishable by death. In typical Muslim fashion, mindless fury took control and their own neighborhoods were torched and fearful firefighters refused to fight the fires. So far, the only weapons the Muslims used have been firebombs and rocks, but this too will change as they realize the terror they can put in the average Danish citizen's heart. If the police and firefighters won't enter Muslim neighborhoods, the Muslims will begin to take over more neighborhoods. Soon, in the heart of Denmark, there will be something rotten--Lebanon.
Soon, there could be Muslim uprisings all over Europe. It's unlikely there will be riots in the old eastern block countries. These countries simply won't tolerate that kind of behavior and Islam knows that. One thing Islamics know how to do is pick their targets. Western Europe is weak.
Islamics do make mistakes as they did when America was attacked. After two decades of weakness, Islamics did not expect the reaction to the attack that they got. Genuinely surprised by the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, Islamics had to fall back and regroup. Now, they use our own left and the obliging media to help Islam win the war. After all, why expend money and blood on another frontal attack when American senators like Kerry, Kennedy, and Boxer will do the fighting for them? Islamics have learned how powerful the peaceniks are in America. All Islamics have to do is wait and be patient.
Time is short for many European countries. How these Muslim uprisings are dealt with will tell the tale. If the trouble makers are thrown out of the country or in prison, there is hope. If the governments scramble to accommodate Islam at the expense of their respective cultures, the war will be lost. Instead of the Nazi salute, Europe's salute will be bowing to Mecca. Is there much difference between the two?
By Barbara J. Stock
www.gopusa.com
Assyrian International News Agency
How Long Before Europe Falls to Muslims?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted GMT 11-7-2005 16:8:48 Send to Printer Close Window
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Liberals in America are trying to take over the White House and dictate to a sitting president who should be on his personal staff. The media follows the president to foreign soil to hound him about "Plamegate," and all the while, parts of Europe are coming unglued. The liberal media in America barely mentions it. The media carefully sidesteps the fact that the riots in France are Islam-driven. The riots in Denmark are barely mentioned. The Muslim riots will spread and demands for Muslim autonomy will be made. This is just the beginning of the war for Europe. The second phase of the Islamification of Europe has begun and all the mindless journalists care about is that "Scooter Libby" pled innocent at his first court hearing.
On the surface, it seems that the youth of Paris are just out raising hell and burning cars for the fun of it, but that isn't what is happening at all. The suburbs of Paris are burning and it isn't because of some bored kids. What no one seems to want to mention is the fact that is it angry Muslims who are burning the city every night. Cars are overturned and the violence is escalating. A woman on crutches exiting a bus was doused with gasoline and set ablaze. These "boys" have now moved from burning cars to burning people.
The story was reported that two Muslim boys were trying to avoid a police checkpoint and decided to hide in a high-voltage electric substation. The boys were killed when they touched something they should not have touched. The police deny that they were chasing the boys, but Muslims have used this as an excuse to tear up schools, trains, shops, and any car that dares venture near them and their "turf."
Islam seems to own the suburbs of Paris and it's unlikely it will give them back to France. It is equally unlikely that France will demand the suburbs be returned to French control. Chirac seems befuddled and unable to regain control of streets of his own country. This is just what Islam was hoping would happen.
Many French authorities seem bewildered and unable to deal with the uprising. What did they expect? When a country opens its borders and allows Muslims to pour in without demanding that they accept the local culture, riots should not have been a surprise. The vast majority of Muslims that have immigrated to European countries come with no intention of blending with the locals. They have come with a purpose and that purpose is to take over the country. Most Muslim immigrants gather together, live in poverty, are unemployed and living on the dole with nothing to do but reproduce, get angry, and be taught endlessly that Islam will make it better. Of all the countries in Europe, France has probably been the most accommodating. This is its reward.
France is witnessing a skirmish. A "feeling out" of what the French authorities will do and how this uprising will be dealt with. So far, the Muslims are winning. Some arrests have been made but it seems as though the French are just hoping the rioting Muslims will just get tired and go home. So far, that doesn't seem to be happening. The violence is spreading and along with the fire bombs, guns are being used.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin stated, "The return to calm and the restoration of order are the priority -- our absolute priority." Unfortunately, de Villepin offered no solution to the problem. What the French should do is deport each and every one of the rioters and their families back from whence they came--but they won't. That wouldn't be "politically correct." Meeting a crisis head-on just isn't the French way. The government will try to "reason" with the rioters to get in touch with their anger so that their anger can be understood. Muslims will make demands and those demands will be met. Round one: Islam wins.
The French will blame themselves for their lack of sensitivity to the Islamic way of life for the unrest. After consultations with Islamic leaders it will be decided that expecting Muslims to become French was an infringement on their rights. In the end, it will be the French that change, not the Muslims. Once again, Islam will be rewarded for violence and its cause will be advanced.
It is even worse in Arhus, Denmark. Muslim youth rioters in Arhus have openly declared war on the Danish government. The rioters chanted, "This land belongs to us!" Meeting with reporters, the spokesman told reporters that Muslims were tired of being oppressed and harassed. With their faces covered to hide their identities, they gave an ominous warning to the local police: "The police has to stay away. This is our area. We rule this place." And it seems they do.
The Danish paper, Jyllands Post, added fuel to the fire by daring to publish some editorial cartoons that involved Mohammed. Any insult to Mohammed or Islam is punishable by death. In typical Muslim fashion, mindless fury took control and their own neighborhoods were torched and fearful firefighters refused to fight the fires. So far, the only weapons the Muslims used have been firebombs and rocks, but this too will change as they realize the terror they can put in the average Danish citizen's heart. If the police and firefighters won't enter Muslim neighborhoods, the Muslims will begin to take over more neighborhoods. Soon, in the heart of Denmark, there will be something rotten--Lebanon.
Soon, there could be Muslim uprisings all over Europe. It's unlikely there will be riots in the old eastern block countries. These countries simply won't tolerate that kind of behavior and Islam knows that. One thing Islamics know how to do is pick their targets. Western Europe is weak.
Islamics do make mistakes as they did when America was attacked. After two decades of weakness, Islamics did not expect the reaction to the attack that they got. Genuinely surprised by the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, Islamics had to fall back and regroup. Now, they use our own left and the obliging media to help Islam win the war. After all, why expend money and blood on another frontal attack when American senators like Kerry, Kennedy, and Boxer will do the fighting for them? Islamics have learned how powerful the peaceniks are in America. All Islamics have to do is wait and be patient.
Time is short for many European countries. How these Muslim uprisings are dealt with will tell the tale. If the trouble makers are thrown out of the country or in prison, there is hope. If the governments scramble to accommodate Islam at the expense of their respective cultures, the war will be lost. Instead of the Nazi salute, Europe's salute will be bowing to Mecca. Is there much difference between the two?
By Barbara J. Stock
www.gopusa.com
Monday, November 07, 2005
The French Solution
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=20086
The French Solution
By Steven Plaut
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 7, 2005
There are very few things as amusing these days as watching the French grapple with their backyard intifada. The suburbs of Paris are now more dangerous than Jenin, and the French are getting their comeuppance for decades of snootiness, anti-American and anti-Israel agitprop, and decades of cowardice.
Paris is now being targeted by violent rioting hordes. For years the French accused American racism of having produced the race riots of the 60s and 70s in the US, as well as the Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King business. And the French are sure that only Jewish cussedness and just plain Israeli evil lie behind the behavior of the Palestinian pogromchiki. The Gall of Dem Gauls!
Well, now that the French are experiencing their own intifada, we suggest that they resolve the problem using the very same plan that they have been trying for decades to impose upon Israel.
Yes, comrades, it is time to implement the Land for Peace Plan, Paris style. Here it is:
The French Solution: Land for Peace
So after leading the Solidarity-with-the-Baathists movement in Europe during the recent Gulf War, France now enjoys its own intifada by urban Moslem resistance fighters in suburban Paris! Of course, this is all on top of France's long history of supporting Islamist fascism and Palestinian terrorism.
A few years back during a trip to Israel, French prime minister Lionel Jospin urged Israel to make concessions for peace. More interesting yet, in documents relating to his visit, Jerusalem was called the ''capital of the Palestinian Authority.'' And what do the French consider to be the capital of Israel? Tel Aviv, of course. A few years later, French President Jacques Chirac used the occasion of his visit in 1996 to announce that ''Syria has a moral right to demand return of the Golan Heights.''
These French politicians may be on to something important. Never one to back down from a challenge, I have prepared a set of proposals for consideration by the French people, so that they not only can preserve peace in Parisian suburbia, but also can achieve a full, lasting, and just peace with their urban resistance opponents.
First, until this plan is implemented in full, we must insist that the French government acknowledge that there is no military or police solution to the problems of violence in its suburbs and only through recognizing the legitimacy of the demands of the murderers and rioters outside Paris can the problems be resolved.
Second, we all agree that territory must not be annexed by force. Therefore, we can also agree that Germany has a moral right to demand the return of Alsace-Lorraine, for the French aggression in 1945 and its consequent occupation must not be rewarded. ''A full withdrawal for full peace'' should operate here. Further, France must agree to the return and rehabilitation of all ethnic Germans expelled from Alsace-Lorraine after World Wars I and II, as well as all those they define as their descendents.
But this, of course, is just the first step toward a solution, as no aggression can be rewarded and France has much other stolen territory to return. It took Corsica from Genoa, Nice and Savoy from Piedmont; as the successor state, Italy must get back all these lands. By similar token, territories grabbed from the Habsburgs go back to Austria, including Franche-Comte, Artois, and historical Burgundy. The Roussillon area (along the Pyrenees) must be returned to Spain, its rightful owner. And Normandy, Anjou, Aquitaine, and Gascony must be returned to their rightful owners,
the British royal family.
Not even this is enough for the sake of peace. Brittany and Languedoc must be granted autonomy at once, recognizing the Breton and Occitan Liberation organizations as their legal rulers. This leaves the French government in control over the Ile de France (the area around Paris).
That, however, still does not solve the problem of the Holy City of Paris, sacred to artists, gourmets, and adulterers. The Corsicans obviously have a historical claim to the Tomb of the Emperor Napoleon, their famed son, as well as the Invalides complex and beyond. For the sake of peace, is it not too much to ask that Paris be the capital for two peoples? The French authorities must agree to prevent French Parisians from even entering the sacred tomb area, lest this upset the Corsicans.
The Saint Chapelle and the Church of Notre Dame, of course, will be internationalized, under joint Vatican-art historical auspices. Indeed, the French should consider it a compliment of the highest order that so many people see Paris as an international city.
The French have nothing to complain about. They will enjoy the benefits of peace and retain control of the Champs Elysees.
Actually, come to think of it, even the Champs Elysees may be too much. Recalling the French position that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel, perhaps the true French capital is not Paris at all, but Vichy.
Click Here to support Frontpagemag.com.
The French Solution
By Steven Plaut
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 7, 2005
There are very few things as amusing these days as watching the French grapple with their backyard intifada. The suburbs of Paris are now more dangerous than Jenin, and the French are getting their comeuppance for decades of snootiness, anti-American and anti-Israel agitprop, and decades of cowardice.
Paris is now being targeted by violent rioting hordes. For years the French accused American racism of having produced the race riots of the 60s and 70s in the US, as well as the Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King business. And the French are sure that only Jewish cussedness and just plain Israeli evil lie behind the behavior of the Palestinian pogromchiki. The Gall of Dem Gauls!
Well, now that the French are experiencing their own intifada, we suggest that they resolve the problem using the very same plan that they have been trying for decades to impose upon Israel.
Yes, comrades, it is time to implement the Land for Peace Plan, Paris style. Here it is:
The French Solution: Land for Peace
So after leading the Solidarity-with-the-Baathists movement in Europe during the recent Gulf War, France now enjoys its own intifada by urban Moslem resistance fighters in suburban Paris! Of course, this is all on top of France's long history of supporting Islamist fascism and Palestinian terrorism.
A few years back during a trip to Israel, French prime minister Lionel Jospin urged Israel to make concessions for peace. More interesting yet, in documents relating to his visit, Jerusalem was called the ''capital of the Palestinian Authority.'' And what do the French consider to be the capital of Israel? Tel Aviv, of course. A few years later, French President Jacques Chirac used the occasion of his visit in 1996 to announce that ''Syria has a moral right to demand return of the Golan Heights.''
These French politicians may be on to something important. Never one to back down from a challenge, I have prepared a set of proposals for consideration by the French people, so that they not only can preserve peace in Parisian suburbia, but also can achieve a full, lasting, and just peace with their urban resistance opponents.
First, until this plan is implemented in full, we must insist that the French government acknowledge that there is no military or police solution to the problems of violence in its suburbs and only through recognizing the legitimacy of the demands of the murderers and rioters outside Paris can the problems be resolved.
Second, we all agree that territory must not be annexed by force. Therefore, we can also agree that Germany has a moral right to demand the return of Alsace-Lorraine, for the French aggression in 1945 and its consequent occupation must not be rewarded. ''A full withdrawal for full peace'' should operate here. Further, France must agree to the return and rehabilitation of all ethnic Germans expelled from Alsace-Lorraine after World Wars I and II, as well as all those they define as their descendents.
But this, of course, is just the first step toward a solution, as no aggression can be rewarded and France has much other stolen territory to return. It took Corsica from Genoa, Nice and Savoy from Piedmont; as the successor state, Italy must get back all these lands. By similar token, territories grabbed from the Habsburgs go back to Austria, including Franche-Comte, Artois, and historical Burgundy. The Roussillon area (along the Pyrenees) must be returned to Spain, its rightful owner. And Normandy, Anjou, Aquitaine, and Gascony must be returned to their rightful owners,
the British royal family.
Not even this is enough for the sake of peace. Brittany and Languedoc must be granted autonomy at once, recognizing the Breton and Occitan Liberation organizations as their legal rulers. This leaves the French government in control over the Ile de France (the area around Paris).
That, however, still does not solve the problem of the Holy City of Paris, sacred to artists, gourmets, and adulterers. The Corsicans obviously have a historical claim to the Tomb of the Emperor Napoleon, their famed son, as well as the Invalides complex and beyond. For the sake of peace, is it not too much to ask that Paris be the capital for two peoples? The French authorities must agree to prevent French Parisians from even entering the sacred tomb area, lest this upset the Corsicans.
The Saint Chapelle and the Church of Notre Dame, of course, will be internationalized, under joint Vatican-art historical auspices. Indeed, the French should consider it a compliment of the highest order that so many people see Paris as an international city.
The French have nothing to complain about. They will enjoy the benefits of peace and retain control of the Champs Elysees.
Actually, come to think of it, even the Champs Elysees may be too much. Recalling the French position that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel, perhaps the true French capital is not Paris at all, but Vichy.
Click Here to support Frontpagemag.com.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Wake Up Europe!
Wake up, Europe, you've a war on your hands
November 6, 2005
BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
Ever since 9/11, I've been gloomily predicting the European powder keg's
about to go up. ''By 2010 we'll be watching burning buildings, street
riots and assassinations on the news every night,'' I wrote in Canada's
Western Standard back in February.
Silly me. The Eurabian civil war appears to have started some years
ahead of my optimistic schedule. As Thursday's edition of the Guardian
reported in London: ''French youths fired at police and burned over 300
cars last night as towns around Paris experienced their worst night of
violence in a week of urban unrest.''
''French youths,'' huh? You mean Pierre and Jacques and Marcel and
Alphonse? Granted that most of the "youths" are technically citizens of
the French Republic, it doesn't take much time in les banlieus of Paris
to discover that the rioters do not think of their primary identity as
''French'': They're young men from North Africa growing ever more
estranged from the broader community with each passing year and wedded
ever more intensely to an assertive Muslim identity more implacable than
anything you're likely to find in the Middle East. After four somnolent
years, it turns out finally that there really is an explosive ''Arab
street,'' but it's in Clichy-sous-Bois.
The notion that Texas neocon arrogance was responsible for frosting up
trans-Atlantic relations was always preposterous, even for someone as
complacent and blinkered as John Kerry. If you had millions of seething
unassimilated Muslim youths in lawless suburbs ringing every major city,
would you be so eager to send your troops into an Arab country fighting
alongside the Americans? For half a decade, French Arabs have been
carrying on a low-level intifada against synagogues, kosher butchers,
Jewish schools, etc. The concern of the political class has been to
prevent the spread of these attacks to targets of more, ah, general
interest. They seem to have lost that battle. Unlike America's
Europhiles, France's Arab street correctly identified Chirac's
opposition to the Iraq war for what it was: a sign of weakness.
The French have been here before, of course. Seven-thirty-two. Not 7:32
Paris time, which is when the nightly Citroen-torching begins, but 732
A.D. -- as in one and a third millennia ago. By then, the Muslims had
advanced a thousand miles north of Gibraltar to control Spain and
southern France up to the banks of the Loire. In October 732, the
Moorish general Abd al-Rahman and his Muslim army were not exactly at
the gates of Paris, but they were within 200 miles, just south of the
great Frankish shrine of St. Martin of Tours. Somewhere on the road
between Poitiers and Tours, they met a Frankish force and, unlike other
Christian armies in Europe, this one held its ground ''like a wall . . .
a firm glacial mass,'' as the Chronicle of Isidore puts it. A week
later, Abd al-Rahman was dead, the Muslims were heading south, and the
French general, Charles, had earned himself the surname ''Martel'' -- or
''the Hammer.''
Poitiers was the high-water point of the Muslim tide in western Europe.
It was an opportunistic raid by the Moors, but if they'd won, they'd
have found it hard to resist pushing on to Paris, to the Rhine and
beyond. ''Perhaps,'' wrote Edward Gibbon in The Decline And Fall Of The
Roman Empire, ''the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in
the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a
circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of
Mahomet.'' There would be no Christian Europe. The Anglo-Celts who
settled North America would have been Muslim. Poitiers, said Gibbon, was
''an encounter which would change the history of the whole world.''
Battles are very straightforward: Side A wins, Side B loses. But the
French government is way beyond anything so clarifying. Today, a
fearless Muslim advance has penetrated far deeper into Europe than Abd
al-Rahman. They're in Brussels, where Belgian police officers are
advised not to be seen drinking coffee in public during Ramadan, and in
Malmo, where Swedish ambulance drivers will not go without police
escort. It's way too late to rerun the Battle of Poitiers. In the no-go
suburbs, even before these current riots, 9,000 police cars had been
stoned by ''French youths'' since the beginning of the year; some three
dozen cars are set alight even on a quiet night. ''There's a civil war
under way in Clichy-sous-Bois at the moment,'' said Michel Thooris of
the gendarmes' trade union Action Police CFTC. ''We can no longer
withstand this situation on our own. My colleagues neither have the
equipment nor the practical or theoretical training for street fighting.''
What to do? In Paris, while ''youths'' fired on the gendarmerie, burned
down a gym and disrupted commuter trains, the French Cabinet split in
two, as the ''minister for social cohesion'' (a Cabinet position I hope
America never requires) and other colleagues distance themselves from
the interior minister, the tough-talking Nicolas Sarkozy who dismissed
the rioters as ''scum.'' President Chirac seems to have come down on the
side of those who feel the scum's grievances need to be addressed. He
called for ''a spirit of dialogue and respect.'' As is the way with the
political class, they seem to see the riots as an excellent opportunity
to scuttle Sarkozy's presidential ambitions rather than as a call to
save the Republic.
A few years back I was criticized for a throwaway observation to the
effect that ''I find it easier to be optimistic about the futures of
Iraq and Pakistan than, say, Holland or Denmark." But this is why. In
defiance of traditional immigration patterns, these young men are less
assimilated than their grandparents. French cynics like the prime
minister, Dominique de Villepin, have spent the last two years scoffing
at the Bush Doctrine: Why, everyone knows Islam and democracy are
incompatible. If so, that's less a problem for Iraq or Afghanistan than
for France and Belgium.
If Chirac isn't exactly Charles Martel, the rioters aren't doing a bad
impression of the Muslim armies of 13 centuries ago: They're seizing
their opportunities, testing their foe, probing his weak spots. If
burning the 'burbs gets you more ''respect'' from Chirac, they'll burn
'em again, and again. In the current issue of City Journal, Theodore
Dalrymple concludes a piece on British suicide bombers with this grim
summation of the new Europe: ''The sweet dream of universal cultural
compatibility has been replaced by the nightmare of permanent
conflict.'' Which sounds an awful lot like a new Dark Ages.
November 6, 2005
BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
Ever since 9/11, I've been gloomily predicting the European powder keg's
about to go up. ''By 2010 we'll be watching burning buildings, street
riots and assassinations on the news every night,'' I wrote in Canada's
Western Standard back in February.
Silly me. The Eurabian civil war appears to have started some years
ahead of my optimistic schedule. As Thursday's edition of the Guardian
reported in London: ''French youths fired at police and burned over 300
cars last night as towns around Paris experienced their worst night of
violence in a week of urban unrest.''
''French youths,'' huh? You mean Pierre and Jacques and Marcel and
Alphonse? Granted that most of the "youths" are technically citizens of
the French Republic, it doesn't take much time in les banlieus of Paris
to discover that the rioters do not think of their primary identity as
''French'': They're young men from North Africa growing ever more
estranged from the broader community with each passing year and wedded
ever more intensely to an assertive Muslim identity more implacable than
anything you're likely to find in the Middle East. After four somnolent
years, it turns out finally that there really is an explosive ''Arab
street,'' but it's in Clichy-sous-Bois.
The notion that Texas neocon arrogance was responsible for frosting up
trans-Atlantic relations was always preposterous, even for someone as
complacent and blinkered as John Kerry. If you had millions of seething
unassimilated Muslim youths in lawless suburbs ringing every major city,
would you be so eager to send your troops into an Arab country fighting
alongside the Americans? For half a decade, French Arabs have been
carrying on a low-level intifada against synagogues, kosher butchers,
Jewish schools, etc. The concern of the political class has been to
prevent the spread of these attacks to targets of more, ah, general
interest. They seem to have lost that battle. Unlike America's
Europhiles, France's Arab street correctly identified Chirac's
opposition to the Iraq war for what it was: a sign of weakness.
The French have been here before, of course. Seven-thirty-two. Not 7:32
Paris time, which is when the nightly Citroen-torching begins, but 732
A.D. -- as in one and a third millennia ago. By then, the Muslims had
advanced a thousand miles north of Gibraltar to control Spain and
southern France up to the banks of the Loire. In October 732, the
Moorish general Abd al-Rahman and his Muslim army were not exactly at
the gates of Paris, but they were within 200 miles, just south of the
great Frankish shrine of St. Martin of Tours. Somewhere on the road
between Poitiers and Tours, they met a Frankish force and, unlike other
Christian armies in Europe, this one held its ground ''like a wall . . .
a firm glacial mass,'' as the Chronicle of Isidore puts it. A week
later, Abd al-Rahman was dead, the Muslims were heading south, and the
French general, Charles, had earned himself the surname ''Martel'' -- or
''the Hammer.''
Poitiers was the high-water point of the Muslim tide in western Europe.
It was an opportunistic raid by the Moors, but if they'd won, they'd
have found it hard to resist pushing on to Paris, to the Rhine and
beyond. ''Perhaps,'' wrote Edward Gibbon in The Decline And Fall Of The
Roman Empire, ''the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in
the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a
circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of
Mahomet.'' There would be no Christian Europe. The Anglo-Celts who
settled North America would have been Muslim. Poitiers, said Gibbon, was
''an encounter which would change the history of the whole world.''
Battles are very straightforward: Side A wins, Side B loses. But the
French government is way beyond anything so clarifying. Today, a
fearless Muslim advance has penetrated far deeper into Europe than Abd
al-Rahman. They're in Brussels, where Belgian police officers are
advised not to be seen drinking coffee in public during Ramadan, and in
Malmo, where Swedish ambulance drivers will not go without police
escort. It's way too late to rerun the Battle of Poitiers. In the no-go
suburbs, even before these current riots, 9,000 police cars had been
stoned by ''French youths'' since the beginning of the year; some three
dozen cars are set alight even on a quiet night. ''There's a civil war
under way in Clichy-sous-Bois at the moment,'' said Michel Thooris of
the gendarmes' trade union Action Police CFTC. ''We can no longer
withstand this situation on our own. My colleagues neither have the
equipment nor the practical or theoretical training for street fighting.''
What to do? In Paris, while ''youths'' fired on the gendarmerie, burned
down a gym and disrupted commuter trains, the French Cabinet split in
two, as the ''minister for social cohesion'' (a Cabinet position I hope
America never requires) and other colleagues distance themselves from
the interior minister, the tough-talking Nicolas Sarkozy who dismissed
the rioters as ''scum.'' President Chirac seems to have come down on the
side of those who feel the scum's grievances need to be addressed. He
called for ''a spirit of dialogue and respect.'' As is the way with the
political class, they seem to see the riots as an excellent opportunity
to scuttle Sarkozy's presidential ambitions rather than as a call to
save the Republic.
A few years back I was criticized for a throwaway observation to the
effect that ''I find it easier to be optimistic about the futures of
Iraq and Pakistan than, say, Holland or Denmark." But this is why. In
defiance of traditional immigration patterns, these young men are less
assimilated than their grandparents. French cynics like the prime
minister, Dominique de Villepin, have spent the last two years scoffing
at the Bush Doctrine: Why, everyone knows Islam and democracy are
incompatible. If so, that's less a problem for Iraq or Afghanistan than
for France and Belgium.
If Chirac isn't exactly Charles Martel, the rioters aren't doing a bad
impression of the Muslim armies of 13 centuries ago: They're seizing
their opportunities, testing their foe, probing his weak spots. If
burning the 'burbs gets you more ''respect'' from Chirac, they'll burn
'em again, and again. In the current issue of City Journal, Theodore
Dalrymple concludes a piece on British suicide bombers with this grim
summation of the new Europe: ''The sweet dream of universal cultural
compatibility has been replaced by the nightmare of permanent
conflict.'' Which sounds an awful lot like a new Dark Ages.
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Why Paris is Burning ...
Why Paris Is Burning
Failure to integrate immigrants has brewed a potent cocktail of rage
By JAMES GRAFF/PARIS
SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHOR
Posted Wednesday, Nov. 02, 2005
Officially, the French state doesn't recognize minorities, only citizens of France, all of them equal under the law. But that republican ideal has seemed especially hollow over the past week as the children of impoverished, largely Muslim immigrants from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa fought running battles with police throughout the banlieues, or suburbs, to the east and north of the French capital. On Sunday night, tear gas from a police canister filled the air in a Muslim prayer hall, sending worshipers out into the street gasping for air—and enraged at an act of desecration for which the police denied responsibility. By Wednesday, after five nights of violence, more than three dozen arrests had been made as the rioting spread from community to community—one official even warned that it threatened to become an "insurrection." And France's political class was embroiled in a fierce debate over how best to put a lid on their boiling banlieues.
Anger and resentment have been long brewing in the belt of immigrant misery that surrounds Paris, where jobs are rare and poverty rampant. It exploded last Thursday night when two teenagers in the northeastern banlieue of Clichy-sous-Bois were electrocuted after they climbed into a electric relay station and touched a high-voltage transformer. The youths—one Malian, the other Tunisian—had apparently thought they were being chased by police after fleeing a police identity check. Though a preliminary investigation has found that they weren't being pursued, their senseless deaths were quickly blamed on the police. After two nights of violence, hundreds marched through Clichy-sous-Bois on Saturday morning, many of them wearing white t-shirts with the slogan "Mort Pour Rien"—dead for no reason.
More Violence Feared
The rapid spread of the violence showed that it was about more than the death of the two teenagers. Unemployment in many of these communities runs at 30 to 40 percent, even higher among young people. The banlieues are monuments to France's failure to integrate large parts of its Muslim population, despite many of them being from families that have lived in France for two or three generations.
France's tough-talking Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, blamed the trouble on "riffraff" and years of neglect of the problem by Socialist governments. For many, though, he was throwing salt into an open wound. The families of the electrocuted youths refused Sarkozy's offer to meet with them, and his hard-nosed approach drew criticism even from within his government. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, a probable rival to Sarkozy in the race to represent France's conservatives in the 2007 presidential election, arranged a meeting with the families, and calls for calm were resonating from all sides of the political spectrum. On Wednesday night the fires were burning again in the banlieues, consuming three dozen cars, two buses, two primary schools and an auto showroom. Government ministers were meeting in crisis session on Thursday, increasingly wary of the prospect that the violence, which until now has spread by what one official called "mimickry," could take on a more organized form. Says a French interior ministry official: "If these things continue and spread to places like Lyon, Toulouse and Strasbourg, we'll have a state of insurrection." If that happens, the real debate about how to integrate France's poor people will be postponed again. And the fire next time could be even worse.
Failure to integrate immigrants has brewed a potent cocktail of rage
By JAMES GRAFF/PARIS
SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHOR
Posted Wednesday, Nov. 02, 2005
Officially, the French state doesn't recognize minorities, only citizens of France, all of them equal under the law. But that republican ideal has seemed especially hollow over the past week as the children of impoverished, largely Muslim immigrants from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa fought running battles with police throughout the banlieues, or suburbs, to the east and north of the French capital. On Sunday night, tear gas from a police canister filled the air in a Muslim prayer hall, sending worshipers out into the street gasping for air—and enraged at an act of desecration for which the police denied responsibility. By Wednesday, after five nights of violence, more than three dozen arrests had been made as the rioting spread from community to community—one official even warned that it threatened to become an "insurrection." And France's political class was embroiled in a fierce debate over how best to put a lid on their boiling banlieues.
Anger and resentment have been long brewing in the belt of immigrant misery that surrounds Paris, where jobs are rare and poverty rampant. It exploded last Thursday night when two teenagers in the northeastern banlieue of Clichy-sous-Bois were electrocuted after they climbed into a electric relay station and touched a high-voltage transformer. The youths—one Malian, the other Tunisian—had apparently thought they were being chased by police after fleeing a police identity check. Though a preliminary investigation has found that they weren't being pursued, their senseless deaths were quickly blamed on the police. After two nights of violence, hundreds marched through Clichy-sous-Bois on Saturday morning, many of them wearing white t-shirts with the slogan "Mort Pour Rien"—dead for no reason.
More Violence Feared
The rapid spread of the violence showed that it was about more than the death of the two teenagers. Unemployment in many of these communities runs at 30 to 40 percent, even higher among young people. The banlieues are monuments to France's failure to integrate large parts of its Muslim population, despite many of them being from families that have lived in France for two or three generations.
France's tough-talking Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, blamed the trouble on "riffraff" and years of neglect of the problem by Socialist governments. For many, though, he was throwing salt into an open wound. The families of the electrocuted youths refused Sarkozy's offer to meet with them, and his hard-nosed approach drew criticism even from within his government. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, a probable rival to Sarkozy in the race to represent France's conservatives in the 2007 presidential election, arranged a meeting with the families, and calls for calm were resonating from all sides of the political spectrum. On Wednesday night the fires were burning again in the banlieues, consuming three dozen cars, two buses, two primary schools and an auto showroom. Government ministers were meeting in crisis session on Thursday, increasingly wary of the prospect that the violence, which until now has spread by what one official called "mimickry," could take on a more organized form. Says a French interior ministry official: "If these things continue and spread to places like Lyon, Toulouse and Strasbourg, we'll have a state of insurrection." If that happens, the real debate about how to integrate France's poor people will be postponed again. And the fire next time could be even worse.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)