Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Muslim rampage in Paris enters 6th day and continues to spread as French PM 'begs' for calm
Muslim rampage in Paris enters 6th day and continues to spread as French PM 'begs' for calm
Europe Under Siege by Dr. Daniel Pipes - October 18th article predicted worsening of immigrant crisis in Europe
November 2, 2005
MIM: This Washington Post article is the one the few American ones which mentioned that it was Muslims who were rampaging in the streets of Paris. Note that the article which is deceptively headlined "Anger spreadsthrough Paris suburb after death of Muslim boys", and blames the French authorities and exhibits a bias towards 'the boys' who are referred to as 'disaffected and underpriviledged' . The article further implies that the mayhem and violence now entering it's sixth day is a legiimate expression of anger. The reference to the Muslim youths as boys should be contrasted with the French Interior Minister Sarkozy's description of the rioters as "scum". Prime Minister Chirac blasted Sarkozy's remark as "heavy handedness. The Times Online carried the headline 'Chirac begs for calm' and reported his lame recitation of the multi kulti' mantra calling for 'dialouge and respect' . For his part, Sarkozy asserted to journalists that:
"I talk with real words. When someone shoots at policemen, he's not just a 'youth', he's a lout, full stop."
Chirac's dhimmitude and Sarkozy's confrontational stance epitomise the dillema which writer Bat Y'eor described in her book "Eurabia" as the fear and unwillingness of Europeans to confront the Muslim threat to their national values. Instead of going into self defensive mode, they apologize to rampaging Muslims for causing their grievances. The French blame themselves for incurring Muslim wrath, and opt for appeasement. They accede to Muslim demands at the cost of French cultural and societal norms. This 'submission' and capitulation in the wake of Muslim violence and 'anger' and self imposed forfeiture of their civil rights relegates them to second class citizens and dhimmitude status in their own countries. The sense of Muslim entitlement, and brazen assumption that France must change to accomodate Muslims, can be seen in this statement by the Imam of a mosque in Lille, a city in Northern France with a large Muslim population.
"...We must tell youths that France does not want to hold them down," says Rachid Hamoudi, director of the Lille mosque in northern France. "We must ensure that the community trusts its country, and vice-versa..." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4375910.stm
The fact that the Muslim youth caused their own deaths when they scaled the fence into a electrical substation, and were electrocuted was considered irrelevant.The community as usual, is putting the blame on the police and the French government. Instead of confronting the Muslim community and asking what they are doing coming to France if they feel so alienated - and cracking down on the rioters, (which they are afraid to do for fear of escalating the violence), French officials are groveling in abject dhimmitude, apologising to Muslims for deaths which were self inflicted.
The WPost story details how most of the Muslims are 'poor immigrants from Africa' who brought their families to France and are now living in government subsidised housing and receving welfare. These same people who came to France from third world hellholes, to live off those they consider as capitalist infidels are now literally destroying the infrastructure of the society which is providing them with money, shelter, education, and healthcare, and has not required anything of them in return.
On the contrary, the dhimmi French officials are bending over forwards showing sympathy to accomodate their every religious and societal demand for privledges afforded to no other sector of the population. In a move which sent the dangerously wrong signal that French police were responsible for the deaths of the two Muslims, Minister Sarkozy tried to meet with the parents of the dead youths. Predictably, his overture was snubbed, and the rioting is intensifying.
Another alarming aspect of the situation is that two youths could scale the fence of an electrical substation , which shows how vulnerable it was to sabotage or a terrorist attack, The riots highlight the growing problem of potential Muslim uprising in Europe and indicate that the Paris riots may be the beginning of the Muslim insurgency in France, which had been feared might occur in the UK.
"...The British government recently published a paper warning a Muslim insurgency by men who had immigrated from countries where they had undergone military training:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article304303.ece
"...Intelligence chiefs are warning Tony Blair that Britain faces a full-blown Islamist insurgency, sustained by thousands of young Muslim men with military training now resident in this country.
The grim possibility that the two London attacks were not simply a sporadic terror campaign is being discussed at the highest levels in Whitehall. Fears of a third strike remain high this weekend, based on concrete evidence supplied by an intercepted text message and the interrogation of a terror suspect being held outside Britain, say US reports.
As police and the security services work to prevent another cell murdering civilians, attention is focusing on the pool of migrants to this country from the Horn of Africa and central Asia. MI5 is working to an estimate that more than 10,000 young men from these regions have had at least basic training in light weapons and military explosives..."
. In a recent article entitled "Europe Under Siege" Dr.Daniel Pipes predicted that the problem of Muslim immigrants in Europe would lead to major social upheaval and crisis: "
"..Giant smuggling rings and human waves cascading over fortified positions represent the starkest manifestations of profound and growing dilemmas: how islands of peace and plenty survive in an ocean of war and deprivation, how a diminishing European population retains its historic culture, and how states from Turkey to Mali to Mexico solve their problems rather than export them.
With no solutions in sight, however, there is every reason to expect these problems to worsen..."
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For pictures of the devastation see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4399456.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4392126.stm
| Paris riots prompt extra security | |||||||||||||||
Twelve people were reportedly arrested during clashes on Monday with youths in Clichy-sous-Bois, although it was calmer than on previous nights. The unrest was sparked by the death of two boys whom locals think were fleeing police, despite official denials. Mr Sarkozy met police in Clichy, but the boys' parents refused to meet him. On Saturday, hundreds of mourners paid homage to the teenagers by holding a peaceful procession in the north-eastern suburb, which has a large immigrant population. Tough response The authorities have denied rumours that policemen were chasing the two boys, who were electrocuted on Thursday after entering an electricity sub-station.
An official investigation into the boys' deaths is under way. A third young man is seriously ill in hospital. The BBC's Alasdair Sandford in Paris says many in the suburb do not believe the authorities' account that the two boys were not being chased by police. Mr Sarkozy has promised to send special police units into difficult suburbs around France to stamp out violence. Residents will be given "the security they have a right to", he said while speaking to senior police officers in Clichy. He promised to find out who had hurled one or more tear gas canisters into a mosque on Sunday night, but added "that does not mean that it was fired by a police officer".
Mr Sarkozy also met the president of the Muslim community in the Clichy area. Local people in Clichy have accused Mr Sarkozy of heightening tensions by using inflammatory language. During Saturday's march in memory of the dead teenagers, there were calls for the government to tackle discrimination against immigrant communities such as theirs. Mr Sarkozy told police on Monday that "for 30 years the situation has been getting worse in a number of neighbourhoods". "It's not a story that's three days, three weeks or three months old," he said. ---------------------------- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1854843,00.html Nov. 2, 2005
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Nicolas Sarkozy has promised more police units for troubled areas
Mourners paid tribute to the dead teenagers in a peaceful march
Anger Spreads Across Paris Suburbs After Death of Muslim Boys
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 2, 2005; 6:30 AM
PARIS, Nov. 2 -- Clashes between angry youths and French police spread to at least six Paris suburbs Tuesday night, with police firing tear gas and rubber-coated bullets at street fighters who lobbed Molotov cocktails and burned cars and trash bins. With unrest expanding through the northern suburbs of high-rise apartments that house some of France's poorest immigrant populations, senior government officials were debating how to curb the violence during Wednesday morning's weekly cabinet meeting. The clashes began last Thursday after two African Muslim teenagers were electrocuted to death in the northeastern suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois while trying to evade police. On Sunday, as the street fighting continued, a police tear gas canister landed inside a mosque during Ramadan prayers, further inflaming the impoverished communities. On Tuesday night, sporadic fighting crossed into the suburbs from Clichy-sous-Bois to Aulnay-sous-Bois where groups of youths threw stones at police in riot gear and torched 15 cars. France-Info radio reported an estimated 150 fires throughout the area, including 69 vehicles and dozens of garbage bins. Adel Benna tried to put himself in the shoes of his shy 17-year-old brother, Ziad, and two teenage friends who scaled a wall and leapt into the cables of a power substation last Thursday evening -- willing to face electrocution rather than the French police officers they were trying to evade in this impoverished Paris suburb. "Young people don't just throw themselves into an electrical current," Benna said Tuesday, his voice trembling in anger. "They looked behind them and saw something that made them so terrified, so desperate, they did it out of absolute fear. I hate the police. They are responsible for my brother's death." Ziad Benna and his friend Bouna Traore, 15, sons of working-class African Muslim immigrants, were both electrocuted. A third youth survived. It set off five days of rioting, firebombing and car burning that continued here Tuesday. Groups of young men have attacked postal service vans and a police station, and set fire to trash bins during the rampages. The French news media reported that about three dozen law enforcement officials and rioters have been injured in the violence. The street fighting less than an hour's subway ride from the heart of Paris has underscored France's failed efforts to stem the growing unrest within a largely Muslim immigrant population that feels disenfranchised and is beset by high unemployment and crime. An estimated 6 million Muslims live in France, many of them in dismal high-rise enclaves like this one.derrahmane, 54, who heads the local Muslim Cultural Association, said Tuesday morning, visibly exhausted after an all-night effort to quell the continuing violence in this town. Many residents were outraged Sunday night when a police tear gas canister was thrown into a local mosque during prayers for Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. An estimated 700 coughing and panicked worshipers ran for the doors. Residents accused the police of deliberately attacking the mosque. French officials said they were investigating the incident, which occurred during police skirmishes with youths near the place of worship, a white concrete box of a building attached to a small grocery. The violence focused criticism on Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, a prominent candidate in the 2007 presidential stakes. The week before the youths' deaths, he had announced "a war without mercy" on crime in the Paris suburbs. Sarkozy, who has also called for affirmative action programs, fumbled in his initial response to the violence. He at first referred to the two dead boys as juvenile delinquents who were wanted in connection with a robbery, then amended that to say they were suspected of vandalizing a construction site. On Monday, during a visit to the nearby police station, he said the youths were "not criminals" and had no criminal records, and promised a full investigation so that "everyone will know the truth." In response to the crime problem in the suburbs, Sarkozy said he would deploy more police on the streets and dispatch more undercover agents to penetrate criminal gangs. He said he would start an experimental program in Clichy-sous-Bois to mount video cameras atop police cars to record the actions of suspects and to show that "police are behaving properly" during arrests. Residents say more police will only exacerbate tensions. "People are fed up with being controlled by cops, being stopped over and over," said Jean-Jacques Eyquem, a 53-year-old taxi driver who has lived in this town of 28,000 for most of his life. "My brother paid the price of zero tolerance with his life," Adel Benna, brother of one of the dead youths, said in an interview, referring to Sarkozy's anti-crime mantra. According to Adel Benna, his brother and two other friends had been playing a game of pickup soccer and were on their way home to break the daily Ramadan fast last Thursday when they spotted a police checkpoint. Officers there were demanding identity papers, a common tactic in the high-crime neighborhoods of the Paris suburbs. One of the boys had left his papers at home, Benna said. Hungry and fearful of being dragged into the police station after a day of fasting, Benna said, they tried to dodge the checkpoint. Witnesses told the family that police began chasing the boys, according to Benna and other relatives. French officials have given several versions of the incident, with some officials saying that although the youths were not pursued by police, they believed they were being chased, and panicked. The teenager who survived, the son of Turkish immigrants, is undergoing surgery for severe burns, according to family members. In a memorial march for the two youths over the weekend, a group of friends and neighbors wore white T-shirts emblazoned with the French words for "Dead for nothing." Benna described his brother, Ziad, the youngest of five children, as "very shy, very nice, very helpful -- he was a good boy, the baby of the family." Their father works for the city of Paris as a truck driver based just a block from the Eiffel Tower, in one of the city's most affluent neighborhoods. As he earned enough money over the years, he brought members of his family from their native Tunisia to live in the small apartment in a shabby, 11-story high-rise in Clichy-sous-Bois, which means Clichy Under the Woods. All signs of woods disappeared decades ago. Ziad, who arrived four years ago, was struggling to learn French in school, Benna said. In a community where 25 percent of all heads of household are unemployed, Ziad was thrilled that his high school teacher had arranged for him to start a vocational training program this week, according to his brother. ------------- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4375910.stm
The BBC News website's Henri Astier explores the sense of alienation felt by many French Muslims.
When Nadir Dendoune was growing up in the 1980s, his home town of L'Ile Saint-Denis, north of Paris, was a fairly diverse place.
"We were all poor, but there were French people, East Europeans, as well as blacks and Arabs," says Mr Dendoune, 33, an author and something of a celebrity in his estate.
Two decades on, the complexion of the place has changed.
"On my class photos more than half the kids were white," he says. "On today's pictures only one or two are."
L'Ile St-Denis is among the "suburbs" around French cities where immigrants, notably from former North African colonies, have been housed since the 1960s.
Blighted by bad schools and endemic unemployment, the suburbs are hard to escape.
Ten years ago these youths were seen as French "Arabs".
Now most are commonly referred to, and define themselves, as "Muslims".
Alarm
Many countries have ethnic and religious enclaves. But in France they cause particular alarm, for three reasons.
First, they are not supposed to exist in a nation that views itself as indivisible, and able to assimilate its diverse components.
The government bans official statistics based on ethnicity or religion. As a result, no one knows exactly how many Muslims live in the country - at least five million is the best guess.
Ghettos also threaten another tenet of French identity - secularism.
As the country celebrates the centenary of the separation of Church and State, Islam is seen as the biggest challenge to the country's secular model in the past 100 years.
Thirdly, the worldwide rise of Islamic militancy strikes fear in the heart of a country that is home to Western Europe's biggest Muslim community.
French police know that there is no shortage of potential jihadis in the country.
The assertiveness of French Islam is seen as a threat not just to the values of the republic, but to its very security.
A different view
Is such alarm justified? The view from the suburbs invites a nuanced, and ultimately sanguine, assessment.
Some groups do advocate cultural separation for Muslims - but they do not speak for many.
Mr Skiker's Moroccan origins mean a lot to him. But, like many youths in the suburbs, he sees no contradiction between being French and having foreign roots.
The main problem is that many French people do, says writer Nadir Dendoune.
"How am I supposed to feel French when people always describe me as a Frenchman of Algerian origin? I was born here. I am French. How many generations does it take to stop mentioning my origin?"
And crucially, the suburbs are full of people desperate to integrate into the wider society.
"I do not know a single youth in my estate who does not want to leave," Mr Dendoune says.
"We have no problem with secularism," says Lhaj Thami Breze, president of the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF).
He argues that by establishing state neutrality in religious matters, the doctrine allows all religions to blossom.
Islam has adapted to local laws - from Indonesia to Senegal - and is adapting to France, says Azzedine Gaci, who heads the regional Muslim council in Lyon.
This is not just the leaders' view. A 2004 poll suggested that 68% of French regarded the separation of religion and state as "important", and 93% felt the same about republican values.
Suspicious minds
All observers agree that jihadism does pose a direct threat to the country.
The fact that - in France as elsewhere - the militants speak for a tiny minority of Muslims does not make the threat less severe.
But as Islam expert Olivier Roy notes, bombers should not be seen as the vanguard of the Muslim people. Jihadis everywhere, he says, are rebelling both against the West and their own community.
The great majority of Muslims resent the extremists in their midst - although many in France do not recognise this.
Yazid Sabeg, an industrialist and writer, says the French have "a real problem" with both Arabs and Islam and equate both with extremism.
The most worrying aspect of the separation between French Muslims and the rest of society is that it breeds suspicion on both sides.
"We must tell youths that France does not want to hold them down," says Rachid Hamoudi, director of the Lille mosque in northern France.
"We must ensure that the community trusts its country, and vice-versa. If you get to know me, you will get to trust me. If I get to know you, I will trust you." --------------------------------------------- MIM: On October 18th 2005 Dr. Daniel Pipes wrote in "Europe Under Siege", "that there is every reason to believe the problems (with immigrant populations) will worsen" . The Muslim 'insurgency' in Paris started on October 28th, ten days after the publication of his article.
Ghettos shackle French Muslims
Rioting by youths in a Paris suburb has highlighted the discontent among sections of France's immigrant population.
Like many others, Nadir Dendoune's suburb has turned into a ghetto
The immigrants' children and grandchildren are still stuck there - an angry underclass that is increasingly identified through religion.
FRENCH ISLAM Second largest religion Five million Muslims (estimate) 35% Algerian origin (estimate) 25% Moroccan origin (estimate) 10% Tunisian origin (estimate) Concentrated in poor suburbs of Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille and other cities
Separatism, the French are told, is a plague afflicting the Anglo-Saxon multicultural model.
Most French Muslims say Islam is compatible with French values
Far more common is the attitude of Nour-eddine Skiker, a youth worker near Paris: "I feel completely French. I will do everything for this country, which is mine."
France's Muslim ghettos, in short, are not hotbeds of separatism. Neither do they represent a clear challenge to secularism - a doctrine all national Muslim groups profess to support.
Immigrants have been housed in estates around French cities
Europe under Siege
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3043
by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun
October 18, 2005
Two recent stories dramatically illustrate Europe's looming immigration problem.
One concerns a gang reported to have smuggled 100,000 illegal immigrants, mainly Turkish Kurds, into Great Britain. These economic migrants paid between £3,000 and £5,000 to be transported via an elaborate and dangerous route. The Independent explains: "Their journeys lasted several weeks and involved safe houses, lorries with secret compartments and, in some cases, clandestine flights to airfields in the South-east."
A senior British police source commented: "It's a tortuous journey, full of discomfort and danger, but they are determined to get here, given the particular attraction of London's established Turkish community."
Turks are hardly alone in wanting access to Europe; the second story concerns waves of impoverished sub-Saharan Africans storming and breaching fences to enter two tiny Spanish enclaves on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco, Ceuta and Melilla.
Until recently, these Iberian vestiges of the Crusades appeared to be curious remnants of a bygone age. Now, however, they are (along with the Canary Islands, Lampedusa, and Mayotte) among the European Union's most isolated and vulnerable entry points, stepping-stones feeding illegal immigrants to the whole of the European Union.
Melilla is a town of 60,000 with a six-mile border with Morocco, protected by Spanish Legion and Moroccan civil guard units, high fences bristling with razor-wire, and the latest anti-personnel technology (sensor pads, movement detectors, spotlights, infrared cameras).
The typical African migrant travels across the Sahara desert to reach the Mediterranean coast, where he idles nearby until the right moment for a run to Spanish territory. "We were just tired of living in the forest," a young man from Guinea-Bissau explained. "There was nothing to eat, there was nothing to drink."
In mid-September, the Africans began assaulting the frontier en masse. Deploying crude ladders made of branches, they used their weight to bring the fences down in places. As one of them put it, "We go in a group and all jump at once. We know that some will get through, that others will be injured and others may die, but we have to get through, whatever the cost."
The tactic works. When over 1,000 persons tried to enter Melilla at a single go in September, an estimated 300 succeeded. In early October, 650 persons ran for the fence and 350 are said to have made it. "There were just too many of us" to be stopped, one Malian observed. An estimated 30,000 more Africans await their turn.
The confrontation can resemble a pitched battle. The Africans throw rocks at the security forces, which respond with bayonets, shotguns, and rubber bullets. The assaults left about a dozen Africans dead, some trampled in the rush to Spanish territory, others shot by Moroccan police.
Madrid eventually prevailed on Rabat to crack down on the remaining Africans-in-waiting, which obliged by flying some 2,000 of them to their countries of origin and exiling another 1,000 to Morocco's southern desert, far from the Spanish enclaves. The removal was done with some brutality, dumping the Africans and leaving them to fend off the harsh elements almost without help. But the unwelcome signal was received. "I will go back now," another Malian said, in tears. "I will not try to come back. I am exhausted."
Modern communications and transportation increasingly inspire Turks, Africans, and others (such as Mexicans) to leave their native lands, taking extreme risks if necessary, to reach the West's near-paradise. In response, Europeans are baring their teeth, brushing aside multicultural pieties such as Kofi Annan's statement that "What is important is that we don't make a futile attempt to prevent people from crossing borders. It will not work."
But preventing people from crossing borders is very much on the agenda; it is probably only a matter of time until other Western states follow Spain and Australia and resort to military force.
Giant smuggling rings and human waves cascading over fortified positions represent the starkest manifestations of profound and growing dilemmas: how islands of peace and plenty survive in an ocean of war and deprivation, how a diminishing European population retains its historic culture, and how states from Turkey to Mali to Mexico solve their problems rather than export them.
With no solutions in sight, however, there is every reason to expect these problems to worsen.
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