not quite as portrayed
Reader comment on item: The 751 No-Go Zones of France

Submitted by paul murphy (Ireland), Nov 24, 2006 at 18:22

...Certainly there are high-rise housing 'projects' on the periphery of many French cities where crime rates are relatively high. However, even at their worst, these 'projects' have crime rates -(murder, rape and general lawlessness) - which are an order of magnitude lower than exists as the norm in US inner-city ghettoes. Lots of cars were torched in the riots of 2005 - but there was only one fatality during the entire feverish fortnight.

However, the analogy between the 'projects' and their US counterparts in many ways holds up ( except perhaps in the scale of the problem). Exclusion and deprivation are the common factors. Policing is difficult and resented, law enforcement a constant holding-operation. What the Frence version of inner-city alienation is not is 'jihad'. Most French Moslems are apostate - particularly young Moslems in the urban ghettoes. What is remarkable is how resistant to Islamic radicalization the young offspring of the 'Maghrebians' are. Most of the (very few) French Islamic fanatics apprehended in Afghanistan and elsewhere, were schooled and nutured, not in France, but in the UK in the Finsbury Park Mosque and similar institutions.

This is not to minimize the challenge facing France, or the possibility that young French people of North African origin might become radicalized in the future if social exclusion isn't addressed. However, France is dealing with some of its problems. It is taking steps to prevent what has happened in the UK where the nonsense of 'multiculturalism' has allowed a parallel Islamic society to come into existence. Banning Islamic headwear from state schools, the courts, and other public institutions was a good start. It has also been universally sucessful. The policy has worked because moslem women want to be French in France. They more than anyone want to be free of the restrictions endured by their forbears in North Africa.

While Islamic radicalization in the sense of fundamentalism is not a significant phenomenen iin France , French Moslems do have political opinions which reflect their background when it comes to issues effecting the Islamic world. They are certainly incensed by television coverage on TV showing the ongoing incremental robbery of Palestinian land, the destruction of Iraq, and US Middle-East policy generally. However, they do not identify the French State with these abuses. On the other hand, when France was involved in the overthrow of an elected Islamic majority in Algeria, France found itself the recipient of a terrorist bombing campaign. The fact that France was the target when France was subverting the elected Islamic government of Algeria while the US and its 'coalition' are the targets in present times would suggest that Islamic terrorism is driven by, and is reactive to, specific issues rather than some fantasy of world Jihad.

France will start resolving its alienation problem when it adopts economic and social reforms which will allow more social-mobility and facilitate the economic integration of its immigrant population. Both likely candidates in the 2007 presidential elections (Royal and Sarkozy) seem more open to making the necessary changes than have any of their recent predecessors.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.