Arab Muslims riot in France

[Yesu_Bhaktan]

Chirac Appeals for Calm as Paris Suburbs Endure Sixth Night of Violence

 

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

 

 

 

PARIS — French President Jacques Chirac (search), intervening after six nights of rioting in housing projects outside Paris, called Wednesday for calm and said authorities will use a firm hand to curtail what may become a "dangerous situation."

 

The violence, sparked initially by the deaths of two Arab teenagers, has exposed the despair, anger and deep-rooted criminality in poor suburbs, where police hesitate to venture and which have proved fertile terrain for Islamic extremists.

 

"The law must be applied firmly and in a spirit of dialogue and respect," Chirac said at a Cabinet meeting. "The absence of dialogue and an escalation of a lack of respect will lead to a dangerous situation."

 

Chirac's remarks were passed on to reporters by government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope.

 

The rioting, which spread Tuesday night to at least nine Paris-region towns, has exposed rifts in Chirac's government, with Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy — a potential 2007 presidential candidate — being criticized for his tough talk and police tactics.

 

It also has renewed debate about France's failure to fully integrate its millions of immigrants, many of whom are trapped in poverty and grinding unemployment, living in low-cost, sometimes decrepit, suburban housing projects where gangs dealing drugs and stolen goods sometimes are in control.

 

That Chirac intervened personally was a measure of the crisis. He acknowledged the "profound frustrations" of troubled neighborhoods but said violence was not the answer and that efforts must be stepped up to combat it.

 

"Zones without law cannot exist in the republic," the French leader said.

 

In Tuesday night's clashes, riot police fired rubber bullets at advancing gangs of Muslim youths in Aulnay-sous-Bois (search), where 15 cars were burned, officials said. Youths lobbed Molotov cocktails at an annex to the town hall and threw stones at the firehouse. It was not immediately clear whether there were any injuries.

 

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy (search) told Europe-1 radio that police detained 34 people overnight.

 

Sarkozy — blamed by many for fanning the violence with his "zero-tolerance" approach to suburban crime — defended his approach and vowed to restore calm. He recently called rioters "scum" and vowed to "clean out" troubled suburbs.

 

Housing projects to the north and northeast of Paris are heavily populated by North African Muslim immigrants.

 

Because of the unrest, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin (search) delayed a three-day visit to Canada due to start Wednesday, and Sarkozy canceled a visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan planned to begin Sunday.

 

In unrest Tuesday night, rioters burned 228 cars throughout France, police said. Some 153 of those were in the Seine-Saint-Denis (search) area north of Paris, where the rioting began.

 

The rioting began Thursday in the northeastern suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois (search) after the electrocutions of two teenagers hiding in a power substation because they believed police were chasing them.

 

Officials have said police were not pursuing the boys, aged 17 and 15.

 

Villepin met Tuesday evening with the parents of the three families, promising a full investigation of the deaths and insisting on "the need to restore calm."

 

There was a heavy police presence in Clichy-sous-Bois, which had its first calm night Tuesday since the riots began. Mayor Claude Dilain said it was "not yet a victory, because we all have the feeling that this calm could be precarious."

 

"If French society accepts that there are tinderboxes within its borders, it can't be surprised when they explode," he said.

 

In the northeastern suburb of Bondy (search), 14 cars were burned and four people arrested for throwing stones at police, authorities said.

 

 

[Guest guest]

 

L'AMOUR DU MAGHREB!!

 

 

 

[Yesu_Bhaktan]

Ninth night and still counting. Muslims used to know how to create and now it seems they can only destroy.

 

900 cars set ablaze last night.

[Gauracandra]

For what its worth, I figured I'd put in a few thoughts. I've never been to France so my knowledge is limited. However, I'm struck by one thing. Whenever something like this happens in America you are sure to hear Western Europe say something like "This is why we cannot be like the Americans with their disregard for the poor (substitute women, blacks, gays, or any non-White male heterosexual category)." It happened just last week I believe when the former German chancellor accepted defeat to his political rival (a pro-American, conservative). The ex-chancellor made a swipe at the U.S. saying how we failed with Hurricane Katrina (which we did fail I won't argue that) and so Germany must not follow America's approach to stripping social welfare programs. Never mind the fact that a few years before Germany had severe flooding itself through a number of its cities, and just the other year something like over 10,000 people in France died of heat stroke during the summer.

 

Well, now we see that in Socialist France they have a large underclass. How can this be? Its Socialism. It must be paradise. You're telling me there are ghettos in gay Paree? Or how about a few months back we had reports of certain cities in Sweden that are entirely Muslim now and how the Swedish police are afraid of entering these areas because they have been attacked. How can that be? Aren't we all a beautiful multi-cultural melting pot of love?

 

I'm being a bit sarcastic (ok, maybe more than a bit). I think this is actually good because it will force Europeans to look closely at their policies specifically as regards Islam in Europe. It will only get worse. Trust me.

[Guest guest]

There were lots of Muslims in Mayapura in the time of Sri Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami, and those Muslims were very friendly towards him because they appreciated his sincerity and spirituality. They respect sadhus.

 

There are lots of Muslims living in Mayapura now. If you get a ricksha from the ghat to the Yoga-pitha (birthplace of Mahaprabhu) then, chances are, you will get a Muslim ricksha-walla as your guide, and you will find that they are helpful and knowledgeable about the lila of Mahaprabhu. He may even take you to the tomb of the Kazi.

 

Lucky you.

 

Those Muslims there are certainly a zillion miles closer to the spiritual world than any member of the Republican Party or anyone in the United States army or government. That is a for sure.

 

[Yesu_Bhaktan]

I hear you. I saw Chirac on TV today saying he won't let this get much worse or he will have to get tough. LOL !! th night of rioting and each night is worse than the one before. Villipen or however you sp. his name was said to be consulting with community leaders over the problem. OMG what a clueless crew they are.

 

Too many in the US think as they do unfortunately. As well as waking up Europe I hope it awakens the leftist liberals here as well. But you know somehow I am sure it will just go over their heads unseen.

[krsna]

 

BY: PRAHLADA MAHARAJ DAS

 

 

 

Nov 13, UK (SUN) — Nations throughout the world, communist and capitalist, first world and third world, have engaged in what can be described as the Great (secular-liberal) Experiment. Recent history has proven it to have failed. The French riots are but the latest in the results of this failed experiment. Material solutions of diplomacy, money, education, health care, a global village, technology, etc. have not resolved any of the entrenched problems of old. The only difference is now people use cars, boats and airplanes for horses, camels and elephants. Now races and creeds war against one another in place of kingdoms and nations. And now we have terror within cities in place of battles on battlefields. What has suffered no change, no diminution, is intolerance, hate and venom one person or persons have for another. The desired objectives of peace, harmony and prosperity of the Great Experiment are proving as elusive as they have ever been.

 

 

Despite unprecedented affluence, with no end of money, education, health and laws being thrown at all the problems, the Great Experiment yet wants more. Walls, barriers and boundaries have come down. Indeed there are not even social or psychological walls. Nothing is taboo. Gone are the shackles of superstition and other mumbo-jumbo. Everything is politically correct. There is no censure even against attempts to defy, and indeed, contradict nature. Homosexuals can be ‘parents’. Atheism is an optional – preferred – ‘belief’. Abortion is a woman’s choice. Life and limbs of one life form are ‘cells’ (spare parts) for another. Vegetarian species are fed meat. And, yes, there are no sacred cows. Welcome to the liberalisation, equality, freedom and democracy. Welcome to the Experiment of the Fools.

 

 

He is a fool who never concedes defeat even when the results of his experiment prove useless, detrimental and unproductive, especially when the results are of such dramatic proportions as are visible even to a passing observer. Persistent fools continue to throw more money, time and resources in the cause of their failed experiments; they seek yet more faith and understanding in their experiments, to give yet more time. While the experiment fails again and again, their challenge is to again and again ‘properly’ interpret the results; never to revise their assumptions. They prefer to re-affirm their faith and beliefs through articles, reports and books; within the halls and rooms of institutions, museums and galleries; and by the agency of debates, media and schools. Only contradictory results are not helpful – glaring contradictions only more so. Tickets, memberships and qualifications help to ensure only believers are privy to the Great Experiment. A barrage of entertainment that mixes facts with fiction with fantasy generally suffices to keep assuaged the general masses. It is only the glaring, dramatic inconsistencies and contradictions, like the French riots, that escapes the sterilization and censor of the secularists. How convenient if only reality would not spoil the materialists utopia.

 

 

The Great Experiment would prefer to view the French riots as a glitch, an aberration, an embarrassment even – not a problem, not failure. Despite the fact that the riots are not an isolated event? Despite it being widespread and en masse? Despite the ‘glitch’ lasting years, decades – in one form or shape or another – with their enclaves as no-go areas for the indigenous people for all this time? Within the Great Experiment, immigration was meant to solve the economic problem of the north Africans; and it was meant to fill the labour shortage of the French; and riots were not meant to be a feature of this neat and happy formula.

 

 

Instead, not only have there been riots but secular France now asks whether to send the immigrants back to north Africa or to appease them with money and other incentives. In the first instance, they need to add a proviso to include ‘those of north-African descent’ otherwise the exercise is meaningless. In the second instance, there is every possibility that the problem would surface once again, at a later date.

 

 

Yet more tinkering, more tweaking and more twisting of the Great Experiment. Any other experiment with the assurance of failure as certain as this – whatever the choice – would be completely and utterly dismissed, and the assumptions reviewed. Even despite their house of cards falling around them, the proponents of the Great Experiment have the gall to say, ‘What does it matter if there is a God or not?’; ‘He may have set the clockwork in motion, but there is no call for Him to run this creation.’ Never mind the creation’s need, your, mine, our individual and combined fabric of life is falling apart in every way, yet you see no ‘call for God’? We are witnessing our personal and collective failures, what feature of the experiment yet remains as the measure of our success?

 

 

Where is the shelter from fear of riots, plagues and wars if not in God? What redeeming feature of secular and atheistic life will give us succour in these circumstances? For a lack of any tangible connection with God, with Krishna, we await but only more unwanted and unwelcome news. This is not the cursing of a mad, deranged, bellicose religionist. This is the portrayal of our reality, our circumstance. Our misery is not vengeance by God, but our mistaken allegiance to an experiment that never could, that never did, give us relief from life’s problems. News is usually sensationalistic; the real drama happens to us every day. It is not in the headline grabbing news that the benign shelter of God is to be felt, it is in the struggle of attrition in our daily life, in our consciousness, in which we will experience the difference.

 

 

That Krishna does not ‘have to’ run His creation is proof of His perfect designing and creating capabilities. That we suffer as we do by our exclusion of Him in our personal and collective lives is proof of how much He matters to both. What other moral lesson can you intelligently deduce from all these numerous, unending ‘glitches’ of the world?