November 27, 2007

"Youths" in France now rioting with shotguns

The endemic disorder in France's North African and sub-Saharan African suburbs (unlike Americans in the 1960s, the French refused to flee their beloved cities) is peaking once again, with rioters now using shotguns to blast away at the police.

It's hard to get a straight story out of France about the riots. It was widely assumed in 2005 during the car-burnings that the rioters were motivated by Islamic fundamentalism, but little evidence of that emerged. It seemed more like an American black riot (but without the looting), with a Gallic twist. Fighting in the streets for ostensible political causes is an honored French tradition, and it's common for immigrants to assimilate toward the more destructive of host country traditions.

It's hard to even find out who is doing the rioting. In 2005, the pictures I saw tended to make it look like black Africans were taking the lead rather than olive North Africans, but there wasn't much direct reporting on the demographics. One exception: Martin Walker wrote for UPI:

AUBERVILLIERS, France (UPI) -- It still smells of smoke along the Rue Henri-Barbusse in the French suburb of Aubervilliers, but the skeletons of burned-out cars are cold now and look oddly like randomly parked pieces of modern sculpture in the shadow of the giant Quatre-Chemins housing estate that saw some of the worst riots in the two-week spasm of riots that swept France.

The sullen faces that gaze on the handiwork of the local rioters and sneer at the vans of the riot police are black rather than brown: Africans from Mali and Martinique rather than Arabs from Algeria and Morocco. ...

One of the striking features of the two weeks of rage that swept France is that so many of the rioters are black rather than Arab, though North Africans from Algeria and Morocco and Tunisia make up more than two-thirds of the estimated 6 million immigrants, their families included, in France.

Another important element is that in places where the rioters were 'beurs,' as the French Arabs call themselves, Islam and religion seemed to play only a minor role. A tear gas bomb fired into the mosque of Clichy-sous-Bois on the first day of the riots infuriated local Muslims, but there have been no Islamic slogans and no taunts against the French as Christians. They are identified instead, by young blacks and beurs alike, as the Gaulois, the Gauls, a taunting reference to the way French primary schools traditionally begin their history lessons with the phrase 'Our ancestors, the Gauls...'

Local Islamic leaders who tried to calm the young mobs have been routinely ignored, as have the fatwas issued by the leading Imams saying rioting and attacks on innocent people are against Islam...

Experts who work with France`s black community point to a different kind of family breakdown. Sonia Imloul of Respect 93, a non-governmental organization, says one of the biggest problems is polygamy, and cites the example of one family she knows with one father, four wives and thirty children, all living in the same standard 4-room apartment of French public housing.

In 2005, I wrote about American pundits' misconceptions about rioting for The American Conservative in "French Lessons."

On the other hand, I'm still confused by the apparent lack of looting in the 2005 riots. Were the rioters in France sober? The 1992 LA riots were essentially one long drunken brawl. It started with looting Korean-owned liquor stores and most of the rioters were drunk the whole time. If the French rioters are sober, perhaps that means they really are faithful Islamic tea-totalers and not the hip-hop inner city American wanna-bes, as I picture them.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steve,

The link to "French Lessons" is broken.

Eric

Steve Sailer said...

Thanks.

Fixed.

Anonymous said...

Steve Sailer: In 2005, the pictures I saw tended to make it look like black Africans were taking the lead rather than olive North Africans, but there wasn't much direct reporting on the demographics.

Martin Walker wrote for UPI: Sonia Imloul of Respect 93, a non-governmental organization, says one of the biggest problems is polygamy, and cites the example of one family she knows with one father, four wives and thirty children, all living in the same standard 4-room apartment of French public housing.

Uhh, the presence of polygamy is pretty strong prima facie evidence that these are Black African MUSLIMS, not Black African Christians.

PS: "4" also happens to be the magic number of wives as authorized by the Koran.

Anonymous said...

Several points. no-pasaran.blogspot.com is your best source (in English) for riot coverage and French politics.

Second, the tame Imams of the French government (they are paid by the government) but the street Imams have a commanding influence. Like most other European cities, they have combined street crime, Islam (often paid by Saudi Wahabbis) in it's most aggressive form, and a new sort of "Islamic identity" with constant thuggery, rape, murder, etc. designed to drive the French out and control the enclaves totally.

You are correct in identifying Black Africans as being at the heart of the violence but North Africans are also heavily involved. Often as the "street Imams."

And YES polygamy is heavily involved. None of the Muslim youths have any intention of actually working for an income, the only thing they know is thuggery and want more money handed out or they'll start burning more things.

Telling is that besides police stations and hospitals, libraries were burned. The rioters want the French out (of part of France) and probably pushed things too far too soon (without numbers). But it seems a spontaneous street fight led by the grass-roots (Muslim youths wanting to be the Big Man).

A young journalist (23) was stabbed to death by a North African man in a railway car as he attempted to rape her. He's being held. It happened about the same time as the "youths" ran into a police car.

Anonymous said...

I am Lugash.

The 2005 rioters seemed to have a line of violence they wouldn't cross. The looted and burned, but other than one burning death no one was reported killed. This new development doesn't bode well.

Does anyone else think Darryl Gates was the strike leader in the Rodney King riots? A news crew filmed him at a black tie event on the night the riots really got going. While he mouthed the appropriate words about it being under control, his eyes told a different story. I can't imagine a guy who ruled the LAPD for 14 years botching it that badly.

I am Lugash.

Anonymous said...

Uhh, the presence of polygamy is pretty strong prima facie evidence that these are Black African MUSLIMS, not Black African Christians.

African Christians are often, despite the efforts of Western missionaries in Africa, just as polygamous as African Muslims, if not more so.

Also, even if this is predominantly Muslim, must we refer to it as a "Muslim" riot? South Central Los Angeles was nearly burned to the grown in 1992 by Baptists and Catholics, but no one referred to it as a "Baptist" or "Catholic" riot.

Anonymous said...

Anon -- it is a "Muslim" riot because those who riot say it is, i.e. they demand "their" rules, a rather corrupt version of Shariah, run in "their" territory. They demand the non-presence of the French state and burn out any vestiges of it. They'll take money though, and jobs they don't have to show up for.

Like the LA Riots there's also smash-and-grab opportunities. Free stuff for the taking.

[African Christian evangelists are always prosletizing against polygamy, it's one of the things that makes Christianity tough sledding in Africa. I'm sure some Christians and Animists in and out of Africa practice Polygamy, but it's mainly a Muslim custom. And a problem in NYC among African immigrants.]

Some have suspected Iranian influence among the street imams (who are almost always Arab or Persian) and that was behind Jacques Chirac's pretty blatant threat to nuke Iran (well, as blatant as the French ever get). Certainly Iran ALREADY has styled itself the "protector" of Europe's Muslims and has extensive ties (along with Saudi who seem to compete for influence) among the various "street Imams" who operate outside the (usually) heavily watched mosques.

This is hardly a "racial" thing since the violence and smash-and-grab is not entirely random. Instead very specific targets (cars for the insurance, any state institutions) are targeted. LA Rioters for example left libraries alone since they were irrelevant to the task at hand -- kick the hell out of any white guy, steal whatever you can carry, burn down what's left.

That pattern is not seen in France.

Anonymous said...

Suggested slogan for French youth rioters:

Ne pas TASE moi, mon frere!

Vol-in-Law said...

Is an anti-French riot in France a race riot, a religious riot, or both? Hmm. The tactics seem to be in line with Mohammed & Mao's three stages of insurgency warfare system followed by both Marxist and Islamic insurgents:

1. Defensive - create safe harbors
2. expand controlled areas, destabilise the enemy through irregular warfare
3. Final campaign of conquest against remaining centres of resistance.

If these kind of events are aimed at expanding controlled areas, driving out the white-ethnic French, and destabilising the French govt, they come under the #2 heading.

Anonymous said...

"Ne me TASE-ez pas!" is more like it, or more likely, "Ne TASE-moi pas!"

Anonymous said...

That's teetotal. It's nothing to do with tea, it was an inadvertent coinage by a stuttering advocate of t-t-t-total abstinence. It started out as a slur, but, as sometimes happens, the anti-drink crowd later adopted it themselves.

I.P.

Anonymous said...

Lugash wrote: "other than one burning death no one was reported killed" [by the 2005 rioters].

Two other people were reported killed. One of them was defending his street dustbin against arson. The other was photographing lampposts. They were not killed in a street battle, but they would still be alive had they not been white. The impunity of the rioters and arsonists is an encouragement to more aggression against the whites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_Irvoas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Le_Chenadec

Anonymous said...

Is the term "tea-totalers" (sic) a deliberate pun?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous: South Central Los Angeles was nearly burned to the grown in 1992 by Baptists and Catholics, but no one referred to it as a "Baptist" or "Catholic" riot.

I am not an expert on Los Angeles demographics, but my gut instinct is that they were not "Baptists", but rather something called "AME Zion" Methodist Episcopalians.

Nevertheless - by all means, please publicize their exact religious affiliations.

And that goes double for the Papists and their odious leader in Los Angeles, the anti-American marxist-fascist, Roger Mahony [wikipedia says that he became cardinal in 1991, BTW].

Evil Neocon: LA Rioters for example left libraries alone since they were irrelevant to the task at hand -- kick the hell out of any white guy, steal whatever you can carry, burn down what's left.

Again, I am not an expert on Los Angeles crime statistics, but I was under the impression that it was the Koreans [rather than the whites] who bore the brunt of the attacks.

Anonymous said...

Ne TASE-moi pas! Frere!!!