Militants attack mosque in bid to reignite French riots

[T_i_B]

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article326605.ece

Molotov cocktails were hurled at a mosque in southern France last night in an apparent attempt by far-right militants to reignite the smouldering embers of a fortnight of urban riots.

Earlier, the Paris police of chief ordered a ban on all large gatherings in the French capital from 10am today, following a series of internet appeals to young, multi-racial suburban rioters to invade the centre of the city.

Although police say that they have no definite warning of an assault on the capital, police reinforcements have been assembled and "potentially troublesome" gatherings banned as a precaution.

Both the attack on the mosque in Carpentras in the Rhone valley - a known hot-bed of ultra-right activity - and the internet calls for an attack on Paris run contrary to a clear reduction in the level of violence over the last four nights. It appears that there some militant elements would like to see the violence continue.

[ck4829]

1. The Far Right strikes

They want to see this violence escalate, seems a lot like the Far Right over here.

[fshrink]

2. France used to say

that it had the "stupidest right in the world", which, as we know, has ceased to be arguable. French right is still very stupid though. Such as in thinking that riots had much to do with religion.

[enigma000]

3. They just want to keep the fires going

More rioting could lead into a low level Civil War and that works for the far-right. With none of the mainstream political parties advancing workable solutions, the far-right expects the people to turn to them. And being Europe, this just might happen.

Can't believe we saved these people three times: 2 World Wars and the Cold War

[T_i_B]

4. France and the Muslim myth

Good article on the matter from the UK Observer

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1641413,00.html

Analysts and commentators often seek to find evidence to support their well-established ideas in any given event. So while critics of the 'French social model' have gleefully seen evidence of its failure in the recent violence in France, its supporters have seen evidence of the damage done by right-wing policies in the country. But little compares with the extraordinary way in which the disturbances of the last two weeks have been hijacked by those who appear set on either finding, or creating, a 'clash of civilisations' between Islam and the West.

Take one particularly egregious example. Melanie Phillips, writing in the Daily Mail, described the riots in France as 'a French intifada, an uprising by French Muslims against the state'. I covered the intifada in Israel and Palestine and, beyond the fact that thrown stones look much the same wherever they are, saw little that resembled the Gaza Strip in the autumn of 2000 in Clichy-sous-Bois in the autumn of 2005. In the course of her article, Phillips spoke of how 'night after night, France been under attack by its Muslim minority', how the country was being 'torched from Normandy to the Mediterranean', how it had 'sniffed the danger that had arisen in its midst' and quoted a little-known writer called Bat Ye'Or who is a favourite of the more unsavoury right-wing American websites and believes that the European Union is a conspiracy dedicated to creating one Muslim-dominated political entity that will comprise most of the Middle East and Europe.

Phillips also conflated Arabs (a race), and Muslims (a global religion of 1.3 billion, some devout, some not). This is dangerous nonsense, but needs to be studied.

First, the facts. According to the French intelligence services, the areas where radical Islamic ideologies have spread furthest in France have actually proved the calmest over recent weeks. Second, characterising the rioters as 'Muslim' at all is ludicrous. Most were as Westernised as you would expect third-generation immigrants to be and far more interested in soft drugs and rap than getting up for dawn prayers. Indeed, a high proportion was of sub-Saharan African descent and not Muslim at all. Others were white and so, following Phillips's description of the darker skinned rioters as 'Arab Muslims', should presumably be referred to as 'Caucasian Christians'.