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| Europe |
| 1.8 Million angry Muslims living in France’s ghettos |
| 2004-07-05 |
| Almost 2 million French citizens are living in newly created urban ghettos in an environment characterised by anti-French feeling, racial hatred and the oppression of women, according to a French intelligence agency report leaked yesterday. The study is set to reignite the debate over France’s struggle to integrate its immigrant population and its inability to cope with rising unemployment, sexual inequality and growing fundamentalism in its urban sink estates. The agency studied 630 at-risk areas in France, places selected because they had experienced some level of urban violence, to assess whether they had already degenerated into ghettos. Most of the "sensitive suburbs" are run-down housing estates built by the French government between the 50s and 70s to house immigrant workers. The intelligence body based its definition on a range of criteria encompassing high immigration levels, high levels of non-French speakers at school, the presence of anti-semitic and anti-western graffiti, growing numbers of inhabitants wearing religious or oriental dress, and a growth in Muslim religious institutions. They reported that more than 300 areas were already ghettoised. The report added that the wealthier inhabitants "usually of European descent" were moving out en masse. The agency underlines the "growing role of radical Islamic preachers", whose presence is recorded in 200 of the quartiers studied...The report concludes, according to Le Monde, that preachers are instilling in young inhabitants the idea that they are the "victims of discrimination and racism" triggering a growth of anti-French sentiment...The French interior ministry has not commented on the report, except to state that since taking the job as interior minister this year, Dominique de Villepin has been determined to work towards improving a sense of national unity...Last year the French government began to tackle this issue, launching a renovation programme for its city suburbs, pledging £21bn to improve the worst of the estates. France better have the best military, not one of the best, because Villepin throwing $ at the problem is not going to make it go away...the enemy within can be as dangerous as the enemy without...2 sides of the same coin. Another excellent article appeared in the City Journal 2 years ago re: France’s immigrant problem. I highly recommend you book mark the url & read it at a later date. Very worrisome that France has nukes that could fall into the wrong hands. http://www.city-journal.org/html/12_4_the_barbarians.html "The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris" by Theodore Dalrymple Autumn 2002 issue |
| Posted by:rex |
| #5 This shouldn't be a problem; the Phrench have already said they're ready to take care of it. Oh, wait.... |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-07-05 11:10:23 PM |
| #4 Yes, it's true, #1, the article by Dalrymple opens with a scene of Rumanians openly breaking into parking meters -I should have mentioned that - keep reading - the major thrust of his article deals with unassimilated immigrants from North Africa - Algerians. It's a great article. even the gendarmes do not go into the "cities" the projects. And recently January, 2003, the French found nasty suitcase bomber wannabees in the Parisienne projects. http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=342932 "France Uncovers al-Qaeda Bombers" by Kenneth Timmerman The French police struck just in time, penetrating deep into a housing project in the Paris suburbs on Dec. 16 where for years Islamic radicals have made their nest, hiding among the predominantly Muslim immigrant population. More than 100 police and a 30-member SWAT team stormed the "Cité des 4000" in La Courneuve, carrying assault rifles with laser sights. When they picked up Marwan Ben-Ahmed, 29, a French-Algerian dual national, he had collected all the ingredients for a large bomb and was planning to strike during the Christmas holidays, possibly against the U.S. or Russian embassies in Paris. In his apartment, police found packages of iron perchlorate and other chemicals which, when mixed together, can make a powerful explosive. They also seized two empty propane canisters, $5,000 in cash, fake passports and a computer with coded instructions. During a second search two days later, they found timers and detonators hidden in a washing machine. Police also arrested Ben-Ahmed's wife and two accomplices, identified as Mohamed Merbah and Ahmed Belhoud. But it was the discovery of a military-issue nuclear-biological-chemical (NBC) protection suit and bottles of toxic chemicals that most alarmed investigators, leading to speculation that Ben-Ahmed and his network were planning a chemical attack or had gained access to nuclear waste and were hoping to make a "dirty bomb" that would irradiate the greater-Paris area. Fears that al-Qaeda terrorists were planning to detonate a dirty bomb in the Washington area kept NEST (Nuclear Emergency Search Team) busy for months, as Insight revealed last year [see "A State of High Alert," Nov. 26, 2001], a problem that remains current [see "Searching for 'Dirty Bombs'" in this issue]. Although most experts agree that a single "dirty nuke" would cause little actual damage beyond that of the conventional explosive used to detonate it, the psychological impact of a radioactive cloud rising above a major city could create panic, making it a terrorist's weapon of choice... |
| Posted by: rex 2004-07-05 9:48:22 PM |
| #3 1.8 Million angry Muslims living in France’s ghettos Solve it, guys. It's your problem. Oh, and stay OUT of our business. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-07-05 9:29:40 PM |
| #2 nice thought: they've already collected themselves in urban Manzanars? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-07-05 9:09:26 PM |
| #1 The article by Dalrymple opens with a story of some lawless Romanians. It would be interesting to have Dalrymple do another article. If the Romanians have been assimilated and the Moslems have not, then... |
| Posted by: mhw 2004-07-05 9:00:37 PM |