[Fwd: Re: GIRLS NOT ROOTING FOR THUGS IN FRANCE]

This is from an email post on the H-World discussion list, dated today, November 10, 2005:

Oliver Roy, a prominent scholar of Political Islam, has an important op-ed
piece in today's (Oct. 9) NYT. Here are some excerpts, in case some of us
have missed it:

The rioting in Paris and other French cities has led to a lot of
interpretations and comments, most of them irrelevant. Many see the violence
as religiously motivated, the inevitable result of unchecked immigration
from Muslim countries; for others the rioters are simply acting out of
vengeance at being denied their cultural heritage or a fair share in French
society. But the reality is that there is nothing particularly Muslim, or
even French, about the violence. Rather, we are witnessing the temporary
rising up of one small part of a Western underclass culture that reaches
from Paris to London to Los Angeles and beyond.
...

Now, these gangs are for the most part burning their own neighborhoods and
seem little interested in extending the rampage to more fashionable areas.
They express simmering anger fueled by unemployment and racism. The lesson,
then, is that while these riots originate in areas largely populated by
immigrants of Islamic heritage, they have little to do with the wrath of a
Muslim community.

France has a huge Muslim population living outside these neighborhoods
- many of them, people who left them as soon as they could afford it - and
they don't identify with the rioters at all. Even within the violent areas,
one's local identity (sense of belonging to a particular neighborhood)
prevails over larger ethnic and religious affiliation. Most of the rioters
are from the second generation of immigrants, they have French citizenship,
and they see themselves more as part of a modern Western urban subculture
than of any Arab or African heritage.

Just look at the newspaper photographs: the young men wear the same hooded
sweatshirts, listen to similar music and use slang in the same way as their
counterparts in Los Angeles or Washington. (It is no accident that in
French-dubbed versions of Hollywood films, African-American characters
usually speak with the accent heard in the Paris banlieues).
...

There is no reference to Palestine or Iraq in these riots. Although these
suburbs have been a recruiting field for jihadists, the fundamentalists are
conspicuously absent from the violence. Muslim extremists don't share the
youth agenda (from drug dealing to nightclub partying), and the youngsters
reject any kind of leadership.

End quote

----- Original Message -----
From: JHS <mailto:jeffreyspencer@...>
To: TORV CARLSEN <mailto:torv@...> ; ANDREA CHAPPELL
<mailto:andrea.chappell1@...> ; DAVE CROPPER
<mailto:dcropper@...> ; JOHN DENTINO
<mailto:dentino@...> ; MARC FERGUSON
<mailto:marcferguson@...> ; KRAIG GRADY
<mailto:kraiggrady@...> ; BRAD THOMPSON
<mailto:gmo73@...>
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 4:47 PM
Subject: GIRLS NOT ROOTING FOR THUGS IN FRANCE

Rioters were not exactly Sans Culottes of 1787, i.e., instead of
Liberte, Fraternite, Egalite, it was more like keep to your (low)
place, woman. Prospectus for Brave New Islamic
World: http://tinyurl.com/7rje6

--
Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main.html> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles