| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Steyn: Wake up, Europe, you've a war on your hands |
| 2005-11-06 |
| Ever since 9/11, I've been gloomily predicting the European powder keg's about to go up. "By 2010 we'll be watching burning buildings, street riots and assassinations on the news every night," I wrote in Canada's Western Standard back in February. Silly me. The Eurabian civil war appears to have started some years ahead of my optimistic schedule. As Thursday's edition of the Guardian reported in London: "French youths fired at police and burned over 300 cars last night as towns around Paris experienced their worst night of violence in a week of urban unrest." "French youths," huh? You mean Pierre and Jacques and Marcel and Alphonse? Granted that most of the "youths" are technically citizens of the French Republic, it doesn't take much time in les banlieus of Paris to discover that the rioters do not think of their primary identity as "French": They're young men from North Africa growing ever more estranged from the broader community with each passing year and wedded ever more intensely to an assertive Muslim identity more implacable than anything you're likely to find in the Middle East. After four somnolent years, it turns out finally that there really is an explosive "Arab street," but it's in Clichy-sous-Bois. The notion that Texas neocon arrogance was responsible for frosting up trans-Atlantic relations was always preposterous, even for someone as complacent and blinkered as John Kerry. If you had millions of seething unassimilated Muslim youths in lawless suburbs ringing every major city, would you be so eager to send your troops into an Arab country fighting alongside the Americans? For half a decade, French Arabs have been carrying on a low-level intifada against synagogues, kosher butchers, Jewish schools, etc. The concern of the political class has been to prevent the spread of these attacks to targets of more, ah, general interest. They seem to have lost that battle. Unlike America's Europhiles, France's Arab street correctly identified Chirac's opposition to the Iraq war for what it was: a sign of weakness. The French have been here before, of course. Seven-thirty-two. Not 7:32 Paris time, which is when the nightly Citroen-torching begins, but 732 A.D. -- as in one and a third millennia ago. By then, the Muslims had advanced a thousand miles north of Gibraltar to control Spain and southern France up to the banks of the Loire. In October 732, the Moorish general Abd al-Rahman and his Muslim army were not exactly at the gates of Paris, but they were within 200 miles, just south of the great Frankish shrine of St. Martin of Tours. Somewhere on the road between Poitiers and Tours, they met a Frankish force and, unlike other Christian armies in Europe, this one held its ground "like a wall . . . a firm glacial mass," as the Chronicle of Isidore puts it. A week later, Abd al-Rahman was dead, the Muslims were heading south, and the French general, Charles, had earned himself the surname "Martel" -- or "the Hammer." Poitiers was the high-water point of the Muslim tide in western Europe. It was an opportunistic raid by the Moors, but if they'd won, they'd have found it hard to resist pushing on to Paris, to the Rhine and beyond. "Perhaps," wrote Edward Gibbon in The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, "the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet." There would be no Christian Europe. The Anglo-Celts who settled North America would have been Muslim. Poitiers, said Gibbon, was "an encounter which would change the history of the whole world." Battles are very straightforward: Side A wins, Side B loses. But the French government is way beyond anything so clarifying. Today, a fearless Muslim advance has penetrated far deeper into Europe than Abd al-Rahman. They're in Brussels, where Belgian police officers are advised not to be seen drinking coffee in public during Ramadan, and in Malmo, where Swedish ambulance drivers will not go without police escort. It's way too late to rerun the Battle of Poitiers. In the no-go suburbs, even before these current riots, 9,000 police cars had been stoned by "French youths" since the beginning of the year; some three dozen cars are set alight even on a quiet night. "There's a civil war under way in Clichy-sous-Bois at the moment," said Michel Thooris of the gendarmes' trade union Action Police CFTC. "We can no longer withstand this situation on our own. My colleagues neither have the equipment nor the practical or theoretical training for street fighting." What to do? In Paris, while "youths" fired on the gendarmerie, burned down a gym and disrupted commuter trains, the French Cabinet split in two, as the "minister for social cohesion" (a Cabinet position I hope America never requires) and other colleagues distance themselves from the interior minister, the tough-talking Nicolas Sarkozy who dismissed the rioters as "scum." President Chirac seems to have come down on the side of those who feel the scum's grievances need to be addressed. He called for "a spirit of dialogue and respect." As is the way with the political class, they seem to see the riots as an excellent opportunity to scuttle Sarkozy's presidential ambitions rather than as a call to save the Republic. A few years back I was criticized for a throwaway observation to the effect that "I find it easier to be optimistic about the futures of Iraq and Pakistan than, say, Holland or Denmark." But this is why. In defiance of traditional immigration patterns, these young men are less assimilated than their grandparents. French cynics like the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, have spent the last two years scoffing at the Bush Doctrine: Why, everyone knows Islam and democracy are incompatible. If so, that's less a problem for Iraq or Afghanistan than for France and Belgium. If Chirac isn't exactly Charles Martel, the rioters aren't doing a bad impression of the Muslim armies of 13 centuries ago: They're seizing their opportunities, testing their foe, probing his weak spots. If burning the 'burbs gets you more "respect" from Chirac, they'll burn 'em again, and again. In the current issue of City Journal, Theodore Dalrymple concludes a piece on British suicide bombers with this grim summation of the new Europe: "The sweet dream of universal cultural compatibility has been replaced by the nightmare of permanent conflict." Which sounds an awful lot like a new Dark Ages. |
| Posted by:.com |
| #19 Nothing a regiment of Territorials couldn't handle in an afternoon, clean weapons, wash up a bit, and still make it to the pub for a pint and some fish'n chips that evening. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-11-06 16:51 |
| #18 Nothing a regiment of Territorials couldn't handle in an afternoon, clean weapons, wash up a bit, and still make it to the pub for a pint and some fish'n chips that evening. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-11-06 16:51 |
| #17 Thanks Bes. I think this could obviously happen in the UK, namely Birmingham, Bradford or perhaps Leeds. The difference being I think TB would of sent the army in on day 3. |
| Posted by: Mctavish Mcpherson 2005-11-06 16:46 |
| #16 It could happen anywhere MAC. It's all in the numbers. If they've infiltrated thier leftest kak into the local political and law enforcement levels, and it is spun into a socio-economic issue as it appears to be in Paris, you're doomed. Luckily, here the use of rubber bullets has not caught and molotov cocktail tossers can still be shot dead. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-11-06 16:30 |
| #15 What is the situation in the US? Could this sort of thing happen there? Are there Arab/islamic ghettos/no go areas for the police like in Western Europe? MM (UK) |
| Posted by: Mctavish Mcpherson 2005-11-06 16:17 |
| #14 I thought that this would start in 2006, with a slightly different blackmail scenario, and thought Belgium would be likely first, followed by France, Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden. In some way, it is fortunate that this insurrection got an early start, there is still remote possibiltity that some people would grow a spine and that the scenario where Western Europe is under shari'a law for one or more generations does not come to pass. |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-11-06 14:35 |
| #13 1848 Redux |
| Posted by: Glereth Slurt7652 2005-11-06 13:19 |
| #12 President Chirac seems to have come down on the side of those who feel the scum's grievances need to be addressed. He called for "a spirit of dialogue and respect." Which is all well and fine when dealing with people who actually seek âdialogue and respect.â The rioters seek neither and will be entirely unaffected by such delicately nuanced forays. Sarkozy seems to be the only one indicating even a dim awareness of this simple fact. As is the way with the political class, they seem to see the riots as an excellent opportunity to scuttle Sarkozy's presidential ambitions rather than as a call to save the Republic. Here, I shall quote Charles de Gaulle: âI have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. I cannot prevent the French from being French.â If Franceâs leadership cannot bring themselves to unite against a common enemy, they will thereby become their own greatest foe and perish by their own hand. Again, I shall quote Charles de Gaulle: âYou start out giving your hat, then you give your coat, then your shirt, then your skin and finally your soul.â There is no negotiating with those who seek absolute ascendancy. Do so at your own extreme peril. No amount of nuanced diplomacy will alter Islamism's intended goal of Global Cultural Genocide. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2005-11-06 13:06 |
| #11 Being "French" will simply no longer suffice. One must be "French Algerian" or "French PA, and have access to ethnic preferences, 40 hectors and a new Peugeot, et al. One reaps what one sows. I agree with what I think is your general thrust, but be careful not to impute the US model to France. The Republic does not give ethnic preferences - that was the argument behind banning the hijab in school, for instance. |
| Posted by: lotp 2005-11-06 11:34 |
| #10 I'm with the Leclerc solution, supported by battalions of pissed off infantry. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-11-06 11:28 |
| #9 The French Gov missed the mark with their allowing this to grow right from thr start. Britten did the same thing, now they are working it. We were no better, remember the WATTS riots, how long did that last. The last thing the French need to do is send in tanks. This will only justify them and get an icrease in international support, IE Iran. the French need to contain it, the best they can. After it settles down they can go after the core, and make changes in their policies and police practices. A relook and enfrorcement of immigration policies. I'm not getting soft but there is a democratic government there, albiet a socialist one, the French people will rally to this like the Britts and finally get on the team. |
| Posted by: 49 pan 2005-11-06 11:24 |
| #8 While I'm bitching about europe, I might add that with no guns, all you can do is hide under the bed and hope the cops show up on time to save your ass. That is what the gun grabbers and liberals want to turn us into here. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2005-11-06 11:13 |
| #7 I wonder if there isn't some sense of guilt for the current social setup which inhibits action as well. Posted by: lotp After living on the left for generations, and relying on a socialist Gov't for everything, I suspect they've learned to live with "guilt" quite handily...might not even be able to recognize the concept any longer. Inclusion and affirmative action are the key. Being "French" will simply no longer suffice. One must be "French Algerian" or "French PA, and have access to ethnic preferences, 40 hectors and a new Peugeot, et al. One reaps what one sows. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-11-06 11:11 |
| #6 It's time for another "reconquista". You had to kick the bastards out once before, why is it so hard to grasp the idea now? |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2005-11-06 11:10 |
| #5 I wonder if there isn't some sense of guilt for the current social setup which inhibits action as well. Perhaps the sobriquet cheese eating surrender monkeys is not so unwarranted after all. This does look an awful lot like 1940 where the assets are available but the leadership is paralized. |
| Posted by: Elmeart Cherens4263 2005-11-06 11:03 |
| #4 moose, it is very clear that people will not be killed in this intifada except by accident. The yoots do not want to move up this ladder of escalation but do want to make the government concede its inability to govern in terriroties the yoots control. |
| Posted by: Thravish Elminerong7579 2005-11-06 10:59 |
| #3 Many of the banlieu dwellers are armed. The French citizenry in general is not. Makes a difference in what you do and when and how. I wonder if there isn't some sense of guilt for the current social setup which inhibits action as well. |
| Posted by: lotp 2005-11-06 10:52 |
| #2 It is interesting to try and guess what the threshold is for vigilantism. It is not obvious, it is gradual. The vigilanties first begin by just trying to protect themselves. Call this the "block watch" phase. If that fails, and the offenders continue their offenses, then the vigilantes try to force the offenders just to stop offending. This is more like "civilian policing", but stops short of action. It includes things like passing out leaflets, and serious protests to the authorities. The third phase is when the vigilantes have had enough, and try to kick the offenders out of their area. The "ride them out of town on a rail" phase. En masse, I guess this could be called the "ethnic cleansing" phase. Finally, the fourth phase is to kill the offenders. This can either be straight murder, or done in such a way as to make an example of them. That is, for example, either a lynching until they are dead, then the body is taken down and properly buried; or to leave them hung as a warning to other offenders. Judging from what I've seen, I would guess the typical Frenchman-on-the-street is still somewhere between the first and second phases. Still unwilling to "do anything" personally, they want the government to "do something". It is still in the realm of political jockying for power. Only when people start being killed in some numbers will this change. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-11-06 10:10 |
| #1 I cannot believe they have not got the army out yet and it's day 10. DAY TEN. Were I a french citizen, I'd be getting together a vigilante militia and patrolling the neighbourhood streets by now, armed with rocks, knives, guns, chainsaw, car: any improvised weapons we had. We would beat rioters on sight. We would be killing |
| Posted by: anon1 2005-11-06 09:42 |