During Monday’s luncheon, hosted by The John Locke Foundation featuring Fred Barnes, a gentleman stood up during the “Q and A session” and inquired about Barnes’ opinion on the happenings in France. Barnes indicated that the story was noteworty for two reasons, both of which I believe a worty of mentioning, even though the primary focus of this blog is not foreigh policy. The two issues are inextricably linked; the ongoing riots and revolt and more importantly the slant the main stream media is putting on these events.
“The Events” On October 27th, in the low-income Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bios, two Arab young men mistakenly thought they were being chased by police officers. During this “chase”, they jumped onto some power lines and were electrocuted. This insighted the riots. The commonly understood thinking is that individuals of Arab, North African, and Muslim decent are not being assimilated into French culture. The past ten nights of unrest have seen violence that ranges from arson attacks on vehicles, schools, and other targets. The violence has spread as far as Normandy and Germany. The challenge facing the French government is difficult in that many of these indivuduals are French citizens that have no interest in being assimilated into secular French civilization.
“Mainstream Media’s Myopic View” -Some might say that the title of this post is a reach. You might especially believe this if you read the mainstream media accounts from the US
and from abroad that don’t highlight the real issues. Due to France’s ultra-liberal immigration policies over the years and despite the fact French culture is supposed to be so all enveloping, thousands of Muslims have immigrated to France, while the French goverment has made no credible effort to assimilate them into French culture. All-the-while, when you read the main stream media accounts of the unrest, the primary description of the assailants is “young people of Northern African and Middle Eastern descent.” You either never see the term Muslim, or its at the very end of the story. Barnes in his speach on Friday in Wilmington asserted that he thinks the demands will escalate, calling for their own soverign territory within France. If France allows this to happen, the implications would be far reaching for the rest of the world.
Here are several blogs that are specializing on the current unrest and rioting in France:
Powerline
Buzzmachine
PoliPundit
Washington Time’sThe Rioters are Muslim, but don’t say it
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