Daniel Pipes, a Middle East scholar prone to lambasting Edward Said, says that the French media is ignoring the obvious: that radical Islamism is behind the riots in France.
I don’t read French so I can’t check all his links. The theory fits in nicely with many people’s worldview (including, I suppose, Pipes’s), but is there any hard evidence this it’s actually true?
Apparently the rioters in France are about to form a union and will soon be limited to wreaking mayhem 32 hours per week.
Below, David asked about Bloggers who contributed to our common attempts to understand what is happening in France, and possibly elsewhere in Europe, and why it is happening. But it seems, some Bloggers have been contributing a little too much: No pasaran! and Loic LeMeur link to a Reuters report (in French) stating that three bloggers have been arrested for using their blogs to incite people to participate in riots
I guess that’s a first.
Well, I don’t read or speak French, have probably spent less than 30 days in France in my entire life, and I don’t tend to follow French politics much. But what the heck, here I go.
Of leading French politicians, it seems Nicolas Sarkozy has actually made one of the stronger efforts to reach out to the Muslim community…
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We would like to be the go-to blog for all things European and political, but we’re obviously not quite there yet (to my great annoyance). There’s little point in commenting if you can’t add anything to what the mainstream media is already offering, and we don’t necessarily have any special expertise or insight here. We also have work to do. I for example maybe have something to say, but hardly something so valuable that I can ignore tomorrow’s deadline.
Anyway, I’m wondering if anyone know any francophone or especially anglophone blogs or websites that does provide quality coverage of the riots, and does compliment the MSM?
I will say ( through gritted teeth) that our leftwing counterpart European Tribune does add value here, though I find some wrongheadedness in their takes on the riots (wish I had time to elaborate).
And the Wikipedia article is better as a primer and summation of the facts than any newpaper article.
From a July profile on Nicolas Sarkozy in Foreign Policy:
Stéphane Rozès of the polling institute CSA compares Sarkozy to Napoleon during the famous Arcole bridge battle, in which Napoleon charged ahead urging his soldiers to trust him despite not knowing what was on the other side. “Sarkozy charges ahead, begs his supporters to follow him and defy adversity but he does not tell them what lies ahead,†says Rozès. “In his mind, the movement creates the destination.â€
Discuss…
Parts of Paris are burning. Have been for seven nights in a row. This would seem to indicate a problem, and not a small one.
Following-up on my extensive post last week, some more evidence of the ongoing ‘reappraisal’ of the positive growth consequences of immigration that is taking place among economists: Immigration, Jobs and Wages Theory, Evidence and Opinion by Christian Dustmann and Albrecht Glitz.
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Christmas time is traditionally a period of religious tension and social stress, and the first Christmas since the advent of “laïcité républicaine” has not spared France. Last month, students in Lagny-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne, e.g. outer Paris) had to give up their Christmas tree after a group of students (from what I’ve read, the principle won’t say what faith they professed if any) demanded the strict application of French law concerning secularism in the schools.
Students, parents, the French press and of course the usual suspects were shocked to discover that the idea of secularism might apply to their treasured fetishes. The tree was ultimately restored, from what I can garner from the press, following claims that Christmas trees are pagan and secular, not religious, in nature. In any other country, pagan and secular are mutually exclusive terms, and if a garment is religious, a holiday damn well can be too. I did not see an exception for Druidism in the “Loi sur la Laicité”. Besides, if we are to accept claims of secularism, where does it stop? I have to wonder if an Arab girl who claims to wear a headscarf not because its a religious symbol but because she’s having a bad hair day gets the same consideration.
Alas, the passage of the holidays has not made matters better. Today’s AP feed brings news that Muslim children may be expelled for failing to eat the meat offered in the school cafeteria. The letter making this threat was sent to twenty-odd Muslim parents. There was no mention of vegetarian students. Apparently “all children must eat all the dishes served, even if only a small portion” in order to have a “balanced diet.” Now, I went to university in Strasbourg and I saw the kind of meat on offer in university cafeterias. It was years before I could bring myself to eat rabbit after living in France. French cuisine may merit it’s reputation, but the national reputation for taste does not extend to school lunches. I have the strong suspicion that no vegetarian, Jewish, or simply fussy child will ever be the target of such a decision.
Promises that this law would apply equally to all religons are revealed to be the farce they always were. I stand by my prediction: this law is a fiasco. It will solve no problems, liberate no one, and create nothing but idiocy and new contradictions. It is already serving as an excuse for the institutionalisation of bigotry.
Despite having turned Amsterdam’s red light district into some kind of adult entertainment Disneyland, and despite having instituted one of the world’s most relaxed drug policy regimes, the Netherlands were not always home to deep rooted respect of alternative lifestyles.
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