rather than ideologues or religious fanatics, the rioters are primarily young, underemployed or unemployed male immigrants from arab and african countries crowded into ghetto-like projects who express their discontent by burning cars.

They're not mutually exclusive. And in England, 2001, it was Pakistani (but curiously not Indian) youths. Mohammedan youth in the West are turning to Islam in droves for purposes of identity. Apologize and hide your head in the sand all you want. Islam is a major factor.

Apologize and hide your head in the sand all you want. Islam is a major factor

nothin for which to apologize. nor am i hiding my head in the sand as regards the dangers of islam. (it seems very obvious to me our policies in iraq are the equivalent of fattening frogs for snakes.)

there's no islaamic cult advocating jihad by car burning.

crowd too many people into too small a space, allow employers to unfairly exploit them when there's work available and discriminate against dark skin when jobs are difficult to find and it'll happen every time.

when there's too much of nothing, it just makes a fella mean.

crowd too many people into too small a space, allow employers to unfairly exploit them when there's work available and discriminate against dark skin when jobs are difficult to find and it'll happen every time. when there's too much of nothing, it just makes a fella mean.

It doesn't happen every time, and when it does happen the Mohammedans are far too often the perpetrators. It's what happens when your religion commands its thin-skinned followers to be on guard for anything offensive to it.

nothin for which to apologize. nor am i hiding my head in the sand as regards the dangers of islam.

If you say so.

(it seems very obvious to me our policies in iraq are the equivalent of fattening frogs for snakes.)

Such a pity France's absolute refusal to entangle itself in Iraq did not appease its Mohammedan population. But I'd like to point out that I am a very vocal critic of American involvement in Iraq.

Link

It doesn't happen every time, and when it does happen the Mohammedans are far too often the perpetrators

if you have an enclosure designed to provide 10 social mammals with adequate space...and you dump in twice as many said mammals into it, stress leading to violence is one likely outcome. don't really matter if they're muslims, janes, zoroastians or elks.

Such a pity France's absolute refusal to entangle itself in Iraq did not appease its Mohammedan population.

if france became an islamic republic tomorrow, you think the problem would go away?

i saw another article you posted earlier today i think. are you the author of either or both? why don't you permit comments? .

if you have an enclosure designed to provide 10 social mammals with adequate space...and you dump in twice as many said mammals into it, stress leading to violence is one likely outcome. don't really matter if they're muslims, janes, zoroastians or elks.

Mohammedans aren't the only ones packed in. It happens the world over. Riots are not annual event elsewhere. Being packed in like that certainly doesn't help, but it's not a cause by itself.

if france became an islamic republic tomorrow, you think the problem would go away?

That depends on how many Christians remained and what kind of power they continued to wield. I think it would eventually degenerate into a post-1960, pre-1990 Lebanon.

i saw another article you posted earlier today i think. are you the author of either or both? why don't you permit comments?

I'm not the author at all. You can comment on the original page by clicking the link. Since it's not my article, I don't feel it's appropriate for me to accept comments as if it is.

here's part of an article published 9/27/05 by the la times. its focus is congolese-born french rapper who's moved himself up outta the projects. it alludes to the car-burning thing i mentioned.

"Malik, Bilal and Mohamed are grands freres ("big brothers") now, and use their prestige to set a good example. But they discussed the bad old days dispassionately, recalling how Neuhof homeboys had pioneered the tradition of torching cars en masse. It started in the mid-'90s when cars burned during riots to avenge the deaths of two youths who stole a car, led police on a chase and crashed. Car-burning grew into a New Year's Eve event here, and spread across France, Malik said.

"It was like a symbiotic relationship between the media and the kids," said Achab, a curly-haired Frenchman of Moroccan descent who, in addition to being N.A.P.'s technical ace, has a job as a city social worker.

France is full of tinderbox Neuhofs. Gloomy public housing towers ring urban peripheries like modern-day versions of the walls of medieval cities. Known as cites, some projects resemble isolated city-states with their own laws, language and culture, problematic products of a clash between France's stratified, secular mainstream and immigrant diasporas that are predominantly Arab, African and Muslim."

i found a lotta similar stuff a while back.

That depends on how many Christians remained and what kind of power they continued to wield

considering france is arguably the largest secular nation in europe--if not the world--i'm not sure why the number of christians would be a factor. in any event, unless conditions improved considerably, i'm guessing the kids would still be burning cars.