Apparently Not Islamic Extremism… Yet.
Jason Kuznicki on Nov 7th 2005 09:31 pm |
Are the riots in France the result of Islamist extremism? The question has lately become a hot one in the always-active Positive Liberty comment sections. At first I took for granted that this must be the case, but as the days have gone on, I’m not so convinced. The evidence just isn’t there, at least not that I’ve seen, and I’ve been reading the French sources on the question as well as the English.
Because evidence of genuine al Qaeda or other Islamic militant activity seems thin at best, I am more and more inclined to accept the opinion of my co-blogger from Liberty & Power, Prof. David Beito, who writes,
The government of France fosters a culture that belittles hard work and entrepreneurship, packs people into defacto segregated public housing, destroys potential jobs through labor market regulations, and then “maintains” members of this underclass as wards of the state.
Why should anyone be surprised when this leads to idleness, alientation, resentment, desperation, and, finally, riots?
There’s one caveat I’d add to all of this, which is that while the news out of France doesn’t seem to point to organized terrorism just yet, still, with such widespread resentment and alienation, it might not take much before organized terrorist elements gain the foothold that they don’t now seem to have. A delicate time for the Fifth Republic: How does one punish the criminals, give the disaffected youth a reason to believe in French society, and fend off the terrorists, who are likely to be salivating at so many possible recruits?
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I say to France bring back the blade and a curfew, shoot to kill. This is from a veteran who really cares about the radical muslim youth……..not!
HOO-RA
I exchanged email today with an old friend of mine who is in Aarhus, Denmark, where they have also been having a good deal of unrest in the Muslim communities over the last couple weeks. She is doing her PhD there. She said that the unrest there is almost exclusively teenagers, as young as 13 and 14. The particular little community that she lives in is referred to in the area as a Muslim “ghetto”, but it is populated mostly with educated, middle class Muslims and she said she’s perfectly safe there. There have been no riots or problems there, she suspects because these educated people simply know better than to go crazy over imagined slights (the violence there apparently started with a cartoon in a newspaper making fun of Muhammed). Those involved in the rioting are primarily young members of the underclass in other parts of town.
Lots of very good questions. Your description of the situation reminds me of the Watts riots in some ways – i.e. “packs people into defacto segregated public housing, destroys potential jobs through labor market regulations, and then “maintains” members of this underclass as wards of the state”. Of courrse, we didn’t have to deal with the Muslim religion and it’s apparently violent tendencies, thank goodness.
I don’t feel very confident that the French government or the people will have much luck undoing this mess anytime soon. At least in this country the Muslims have been encouraged to join our diverse society, which I think has helped us to avoid Franc’es fate, at least so far.
My friends, and former students are in Paris (US university graduate exchange students), and report much the same sentiments as both Ed and SF Bay. Lots and lots of teens and young adults running amok, “enjoying” the unbridled freedom of burning cars, breaking windows, and throwing rocks and bottles at law enforcement. They report little human violence, other than when the rioters are confronted and detained by the police. Most of the “gangs” (groups of 7-12 mostly male) attack and run–more like the roaming bands during the Rodney King LA disturbances. If there is a coherent Muslim extremist message, it comes during the rallies in the daytime in the islamic ghettos themselves.
Whether France has prospects for dealing effectively with this situation depends on how deeply intrenched is overgovernment (bureaucracy run wild) in the French self-image. To me it seems prospects are poor: e.g. while opposition to the UN in other areas is mostly anti-bureaucratic, in France it is mostly the opposite, as if the French fear the UN won’t be sufficiently overbearing, or at least not in precisely the French way. Thus the left in France is anti-UN, as opposed to the center-right in most other places. This attitude itself is polarizing, to say nothing of the economic effects it engenders upon
a population perceived as “non-French”. And since both left and far right both subscribe to this attitude, it seems the “popular” way to go will indeed treat the Muslims as less-than-fully human. Jason, do you think France will succumb to a fascism of both extremes, or do you see any strong reasons why it won’t?