More than a week ago, riots began in the Paris suburbs. The rioting followed the electrocution of two teenagers, Bouna Traore and Zyed Benna, who were hiding in a power substation.

Coming to an American street near you? asks LaShawn Barber, a black female Christian former liberal (and Temple Law grad), as she identifies herself.

I’m not sure that you really know France or Europe. Dont’t listen to your american TV or papers, they’re kidding you.

France had a empire in Africa during more then a century. Almost half of Africa was French untill the fifties.

So, these young people are french. There are about 15 to 25 years old. They were born in France. There parents were also born in France, because Algeria, Morroco and many West African countries were French when they did it. So it’s much more complicated than a simple “Christians” against “Muslims”. Sorry.

If you want to have a true information : there are a few cities near Paris were radical islamists are strong. Every one knows them, and the police does of course. But in these cities, nothing has yet happened there.

These riots comes from poverty, unempolyment, and very-very aggressive politic from french governement against poor people.

If you know what means “la coupe est pleine” in french. That’s it.

It was all mapped out in Groen van Prinsterer’s Lectures on Unbelief and Revolution which are best available in English in Harry van Dyke’s book. Islam is a menace, especially for those who believe its tenets but France’s secular revolution is worse and deserves closer examination by ourselves.

The artificial rationing of French jobs means they go only to the most skilled, oldest, and most well-connected French, leaving out most young Muslim immigrants.

The French “Continental” labor model has lead to this. Muslim youth don’t riot in the U.S. because they have a job to go to the next day, and hope for their future careers. In France, immigrants have much less hope.

Let’s compare the Muslim minority in France with the Latino minority in the U.S. The Latino unemployment rate in the U.S. is around 7%, much less than the national unemployment rate in France! Even undocumented workers can go down to the local 7-11 parking lot and get a job for the day in the U.S., and 90% of them make more than the Federal minimum wage.

This is not to excuse any behavior, but it is human nature for idle young men to cause trouble, regardless of race or religion.

While predominantly North African, and hence Muslim, you are also correct in pointing out that there are surely quite a few Christians among the youths engaged in these riots. This doesn’t have to do with religion, but with the tensions built up in an impoverished underclass. That does NOT mean that the violence is anyway justified… but it is also not accurate to say that the violence is somehow inspired by or indicative of Islam.

There is no western nation more opposed to the idea of multiculturalism than france. French liberals and conservatives alike will tell you that it’s a purely “Anglo-saxon” invention. The only acceptable option in France is absolute assimilation to their idea of “Frenchness” The immigration laws are much stricter than ours – Muslim clerics get expelled for preaching undemocratic values. and there is constant tough talk about getting tough on immigrants (see Sarkozy, or worse, Le Pen and his 18%).

You could not have picked a worse country to make your case. If anything France should be an American conservative’s paradise. But you know what? It’s been a total failure. the french talk till they’re blue in the face about how there can only be “French” citizens, not hyphenated “Arab-French”, “African-French” etc. somehow that hasn’t made the ghettos vanish. you basically have traditional white french people, a few arabs (& others) who’ve fully adopted white french ways, and the remaining arabs who are considered suspect b/c they are not indistinguishable from white people. just watching the officials on french tv, it is clear how out of touch they are with this segment of french society.

It’s well past time someone stood up for America’s “liberal” approach to ethnicity. We have our divisions but I’ll say this – go into any inner city black neighborhood here and you’ll find black cops who stand for law & order as much as the next cop but don’t hide the fact that they’re black and that black culture belongs as much to them as to any gangbanger. same goes for latinos. compare that to the CRS (french nat’l cops) in the projects- they look like a foreign occupying army. America has lots of people who bridge cultural gaps. France’s obsession with forcing everyone into the preexisting notion of Frenchness hasn’t worked. Too many people are still outside it and the “real” french refuse to deal with that, since their ideal works in theory. They have no idea what to do now b/c authority is held exclusively by traditional french elitists, they have no one who’s used to the streets and knows how to stand up to the thugs. That’s what a get tough conservative approach gets you.

This is not a Muslim issue- it’s a poverty issue and shames the secular humanism of the French.

“Every few years, Paris experiences civil disturbances for one reason or another.”

Aaron, it’s nice to know something in Old Europe still works like it’s supposed to.