Ninth night of French Muslim riots
Nov. 4th, 2005 11:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asterrocNinth night of French Muslim riots
This has been getting very little press in the US media, and less in the blogosphere. For nine straight nights, oppressed Muslim minorities, the equivalent of blacks in America, have been rioting in Parisian suburbs and throughout the French countryside. This is nation-wide civil unrest. Something this bad is usually the last precursor to anarchy and revolution.
And nobody has been killed. More than 8 major cities in a country the size of Pennsylvania are nightly in a state of anarchy, and not a single person has died.
This all started the night of October 26. Three teenagers were chased by police (perhaps) and fled into a power station. Two of the boys were killed by electrocution. However, the problems that turned three kids' police incident into nation-wide civil unrest aren't problems that cropped up overnight, they've been brewing for decades.
I wonder what happens when somebody gets killed. Despite the hard work of groups of law abiding Muslims in the rioting communities, the rioters are not stopping. One Parisian suburb had more than a thousand police deployed overnight to try and control the riots, and yet the burning of cars and buildings continues. Nobody's been killed yet on either side, but it's inevitable.
And when it happens, I expect the conflict will escalate out of control, and it will be only a matter of time before the whole country descends into anarchy and there is a general revolution. Of course the rioters are not well organized, so who knows who or what group will take over after.
At least there hasn't been any looting yet. Them Europeans know how to do civil unrest in a civilized manner. It's amazing the social unrest in the aftermath of Katrina was isolated to just New Orleans. Imagine if every ghetto, every inner city, in the US decided to riot in sympathy. Good thing we have laws against deploying our troops within our own country against our civilians.
This has been getting very little press in the US media, and less in the blogosphere. For nine straight nights, oppressed Muslim minorities, the equivalent of blacks in America, have been rioting in Parisian suburbs and throughout the French countryside. This is nation-wide civil unrest. Something this bad is usually the last precursor to anarchy and revolution.
And nobody has been killed. More than 8 major cities in a country the size of Pennsylvania are nightly in a state of anarchy, and not a single person has died.
This all started the night of October 26. Three teenagers were chased by police (perhaps) and fled into a power station. Two of the boys were killed by electrocution. However, the problems that turned three kids' police incident into nation-wide civil unrest aren't problems that cropped up overnight, they've been brewing for decades.
I wonder what happens when somebody gets killed. Despite the hard work of groups of law abiding Muslims in the rioting communities, the rioters are not stopping. One Parisian suburb had more than a thousand police deployed overnight to try and control the riots, and yet the burning of cars and buildings continues. Nobody's been killed yet on either side, but it's inevitable.
And when it happens, I expect the conflict will escalate out of control, and it will be only a matter of time before the whole country descends into anarchy and there is a general revolution. Of course the rioters are not well organized, so who knows who or what group will take over after.
At least there hasn't been any looting yet. Them Europeans know how to do civil unrest in a civilized manner. It's amazing the social unrest in the aftermath of Katrina was isolated to just New Orleans. Imagine if every ghetto, every inner city, in the US decided to riot in sympathy. Good thing we have laws against deploying our troops within our own country against our civilians.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
You are a moron.
Date: 2005-11-04 09:27 pm (UTC)Re: You are a moron.
Date: 2005-11-04 09:53 pm (UTC)Likely because things are worse there. In many Islamic countries their actions would be punishable by death, as would things like not covering your head, or actually shaving your beard. Just look at your own last three posts.
Okay, chances are we're either exaggerating or looking at the worst cases in Islamic countires, but my point is there's worse things than living as a Muslim in a French ghetto. Even so, ghettos suck, and the ghetto lifestyle sucks, and no one should be forced (by the greater society) to live that way. And before you say anything about "no one's forcing them to live that way"...
I knew a woman, around age 23, a single mother with two preschool-aged kids. I don't know the circumstances under which she was a single mother. She could've been raped, or had a husband who left, or just made poor choices while younger. She worked a full time job, which was enough to pay for her and her children's cost of living, barely, but it was a dead-end job. She had the option to stay at that level for life, or to try and improve their lot, making up for the past. Thankfully, she had the choice.
She decided to get her associate's degree in business at a local community college. As cheap as CC's are, she couldn't afford both rent and tuition, so she moved in with her boyfriend. Then he turned abusive. She was left with the choice again of moving out to their own place and quitting school so she and her children would be safe in the short term, or continuing to take classes in the hope that they would have a better life in the future. There are no good choices in a situation like this, when life deals from the bottom of the deck.
What would you choose there? Would you be able to quietly sit down and write a letter to your mayor, governor, senator, and president? Would you have the time to do so when raising two children, taking classes, working full time, and being beaten regularly? Would it make a difference if you did write a letter?
Rioting is not a good choice; I never said it was. These people should be held responsible for their actions. But the whole society perpetuates the situation, should also be held responsible, and something needs to be done to fix it, as the French government is beginning to see. Hopefully it won't take class riots here in the US for us to wise up.