The Continuing French Intifada

Via RealClear Politics is a very good article by Fred Siegel on a subject I have intended to blog for awhile, but never got to for one reason or another: The ongoing French Intifada, which exploded to prominence last year in the form of a nationwide rash of arson and violence on the outskirts of the major cities of France.

For the moment, the French are breathing a sigh of relief, as the anniversary of last year's three weeks of rioting by Muslim youth passed with much fanfare but no widespread disturbances.

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The 2005 Ramadan Riots, which saw some 10,000 cars torched and 300 buildings firebombed, have been followed by a yearlong, lower-grade rolling riot - what some in the French police are calling a "permanent intifada." Nationwide, this works out to 15 attacks a day on police and firefighters, and 100 cars set ablaze nightly. And for the first time, the police are being subject to well-planned ambushes.

So when the Oct. 27 anniversary of last year's violence was met with "only" 277 torched cars, the Interior Ministry declared it "relatively calm."

But the trends are not good. While last year's violence was disorganized (rioters armed only with bricks, crowbars and Molotov cocktails) and largely confined to heavily immigrant Muslim and African neighborhoods, this past week saw a half-dozen well-organized attacks on public buses in non-immigrant neighborhoods by "youths" armed with guns. In some cases, they ordered passengers out at gunpoint, then firebombed the bus. In others, they've tossed Molotov cocktails into buses with the passengers still aboard.[bold added]

Remind me to stay the hell out of France!

If this state of affairs comes as a surprise, perhaps the role of the left -- which is dominant in France -- in fostering it will make it less so.

The Fifth Republic's foreign policy, which sees the Arab world as a counter-balance to U.S. and Israeli power, has unintentionally legitimated some of the violence. French television, its perspective an extension of the nation's ruling elites, has tried to incorporate young Muslims by depicting the conflicts in the Middle East largely from a Franco-Muslim perspective. On many nights, the TV news glorified the intifada against Israel. In the "al Dura affair," French TV went so far as to fabricate images of a Palestinian boy supposedly killed by Israelis.

The Muslim underclass, not surprisingly, identified with the "youths" attacking Israelis and sees in their own violence a heroic extension of the battle against the enemies of Islam.

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But the old Socialist opposition - which had already managed to finish third in the 2002 presidential elections, behind the fascist Jean Le Pen - have been unable to capitalize on the nation's troubles. The Socialists, who largely represent government bureaucrats and professionals, are as cut off from popular sentiment as Chirac. They are, explains American expatriate writer Denis Boyles, so ardent in their courtship of the Muslim vote as to be literally tongue-tied when it comes to the violence. [bold added]

So one set of leftists glorified Moslem violence abroad and another set can't bring itself to condemn the violence at home even if doing so would make it more popular with the French electorate! This reminds me of nothing more than liberal criminal-coddling here in the United States. Leftist milquetoasts will deliver a litany of reasons why anything but the criminal is to blame (if his efforts aren't admired outright as a blow against an evil system) and at the same time work to defang the criminal justice system and disarm law-abiding citizens.

Believe it or not, the article ends on a hopeful note. Interior Minister (and political enemy of Jacques Chirac) Nicholas Sarkozy, who has achieved some success at curtailing the violence, stands to gain politically as a result. The man professes an admiration of Rudy Giuliani and of America. France needs a leader like this, and America could use such an ally. But is France already too far-gone for one man to make a difference? I hope not.

-- CAV