Required weekend reading
Believe it or not, Haaretz has found a Frenchman who speaks with some common sense about the recent uprisings there. Even more surprising, he's erstwhile lefty intellectual Alain Finkielkraut. Here's what he's saying now.
"In France, they would like very much to reduce these riots to their social dimension, to see them as a revolt of youths from the suburbs against their situation, against the discrimination they suffer from, against the unemployment. The problem is that most of these youths are blacks or Arabs, with a Muslim identity. Look, in France there are also other immigrants whose situation is difficult -- Chinese, Vietnamese, Portuguese -- and they're not taking part in the riots. Therefore, it is clear that this is a revolt with an ethno-religious character.
...
"We tend to fear the language of truth, for 'noble' reasons. We prefer to say the 'youths' instead of 'blacks' or 'Arabs.' But the truth cannot be sacrificed, no matter how noble the reasons. And, of course, we also must avoid generalizations: This isn't about blacks and Arabs as a whole, but about some blacks and Arabs. And, of course, religion -- not as religion, but as an anchor of identity, if you will -- plays a part. Religion as it appears on the Internet, on the Arab television stations, serves as an anchor of identity for some of these youths.
...
"Imagine for a moment that they were whites, like in Rostock in Germany. Right away, everyone would have said: 'Fascism won't be tolerated.' When an Arab torches a school, it's rebellion. When a white guy does it, it's fascism. I'm 'color blind.' Evil is evil, no matter what color it is. And this evil, for the Jew that I am, is completely intolerable."
Those are just a few excerpts. I recommend reading the whole thing. It's lengthy, but worthwhile.
Comments
What he is saying goes for America as well: you aren't allowed to speak the truth here, either.
Posted by: Bailey Hankins | November 19, 2005 01:45 AM
Racism, pure and simple.
The youths who torched were also mostly male, they mostly had two eyes, they mostly had brown skins.
So what?
It is about ECONOMICS and POWER, not about race, religion, or national origin.
Posted by: Blue88 | November 19, 2005 01:02 PM
They should all be mowed down with machine guns. There is no excuse for this behavior.
Posted by: Bailey Hankins | November 19, 2005 01:39 PM
"It is about ECONOMICS and POWER, not about race, religion, or national origin."
(Blue88)
100% WRONG.
There are thousands of jobless Vietnamese, Malaysians and Christian Africans in France who did NOT support or engage in any of the "rioting" there.
The recent French insurrection was nothing less than a "Muslim uprising," and the message for the rest of the Western world is that massive Third World Immigration to First World nations is suicidal on the part of the West and that the ongoing "Holy War" between the forces of Islamo-cultism/Islamo-fascism and the West is a global conflict with no possible diplomatic solution.
One of those ideologies must be destroyed. They both cannot peacefully coexist.
That's why the Bush Doctrine is timely, vital and necessary.
Posted by: JMK | November 19, 2005 10:15 PM
Bush was on the right track before Cheney and Halliburton needed to secure that Iraqi oil and a few hundred billion American taxpayer dollars.
If only he had stuck to the original plan instead of playing Santa Claus to the mega-rich.
Posted by: Bailey Hankins | November 20, 2005 12:49 AM