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November 4, 2005

Confused Americans for Truth - Paris Burning for All the Wrong Reasons

by Ferdinand T Cat

I keep hoping that I'll be able to do a retrospective analysis on the riots in France, but instead of stopping, they've started to spread.

The riots were sparked by the accidental deaths of two Muslim youths who were allegedly fleeing the police, but according to My Way News, the problem runs deeper.

The violence has exposed deep discontent in neighborhoods where African and Muslim immigrants and their French-born children are trapped by poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, crime, poor education and housing.

It's worth noting that this is completely different from an American riot, where you have people smashing windows and stealing stuff. The people storming through the suburbs of Paris are burning and destroying without any gain to themselves. They have no goals, no demands to be met, and no plan to help them get ahead when the violence is over. The riots are a physical manifestation of the dumbest of all human emotions-- hate.

And I can't stop thinking that if the French government can't get back in control, their only hope is going to be a military occupation, and the really quality military forces are too busy to help: they're in Iraq.

But back to the cause of the riots. I hate to say this, but I think many conservatives have missed the point when they castigate the French for its tradition of appeasement.

Even though a majority of Muslims may very well be willing to live under Western law, the squeaky wheel of the European Muslim community is Islamism, the political expression of a desire to live under the strictures of Islamic law. The French government's commitment to the creation of a secular culture can easily be seen as a way of punishing Islamists for trying to maintain a religious identity. A law designed to enforce the separation of church and state was considered by French Muslims to be a direct slap in the face.

The classical model of appeasement is that you try to appear non-threatening and your antagonist sees it as weakness, yet Muslims feel they are singled out for police abuse. What we are dealing with here is not multiculturalism gone awry, but separation of church and state run amok. And this is exactly why it's so much worse than any violence we've seen here.

See, people who are merely angry at being poor will eventually go home when there's nothing left to steal. On the other hand, people who want to cleanse a country of its corrupt secular culture aren't going to be satisfied with anything less than scorched eartch.

Remember that the next time somebody tells you that separation of church and state is more important than freedom of religion.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat


# At Fri 10:42 PM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (3) | More Confused Americans for Truth

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Comments

"people who want to cleanse a country of its corrupt secular culture aren't going to be satisfied with anything less than scorched eartch."

So the remedy is to merge their religion with the state? Seems to me it's all the more reason to keep religion from operating the levers of power.

Also, I notice the original reports said the rioters are Muslims and North Africans. After a few days, the North was dropped. I wonder which is correct? And why the change?


Posted by: The Owner's Manual at November 5, 2005 10:18 AM

I think the North African aspect was dropped because they're mostly Berbers, who are also Muslim.

If the squeaky wheel theory is correct, then most of the Muslim population would be happy if their religion does not relegate them to second-class status. If the Islamists get their way, then all non-Muslims would get second-class status (dhimmi), which would be just as bad. The problem is allowing the latter to gain traction by pursuing a policy of stamping out religious expression.

For what it's worth, I've always been neutral on the issue of terrorist profiling, and this crisis has made me see the dangers of that policy as well.


Posted by: Ferdy [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 5, 2005 11:03 AM

...their only hope is going to be a military occupation, and the really quality military forces are too busy to help: they're in Iraq.

Can you just imagine the uproar if the US were to invade France?


Posted by: Mel at November 7, 2005 2:09 AM

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