Chirac is out of touch if he thinks what happened in his country was the work of jihadist. Jihadist kill people, acting out violently to put foward their radical ideology. They don't burn cars and take to the streets en masse. Who does that? Youth, facing 25% unemployment...minorities, living as second-class citizens in a country that has not figured out how to integrate people who aren't their version of "French" into their own society.
While I'd welcome Chirac's support against Iran and the international War on Terror, to link the domestic failures of French society is a mistake.
What happens when Hamas is democratically elected? This is scary.
"Youth, facing 25% unemployment...minorities, living as second-class citizens in a country that has not figured out how to integrate people who aren't their version of "French" into their own society."
From what part of the world, and practicing which religion? I am not meaning to decry good, law-abiding Muslims, of which there are MANY in France and throughout the world, but please, stop drinking the media Kool-Aid. Even the socialists I used to work for stated this as a fact, and since they own a great deal of property in France and have family there, I trust their judgment.
One only need look back as far as 1968 to see that youth discontentment and subsequent rioting in France is not new. I'm not exactly sure what your point was (maybe its just early...lol), but all I was arguing is that there is no real evidence that I have seen that jihadist were involved in this. That is not to say that there are not any Islamic militants within France, particularly the areas that rioted. On the contrary, the Islamic ghettos throughout France have become a breeding ground for such characters. However, I think there were other factors at play in the recent rioting that should not be discounted.
Mike, why does one become a terrorist? When you are unemployed, I imagine that some of these imams start to make a lot more sense.
No doubt - I was just objecting to equating rallying in the streets and burning a few cars to jihadist activities. Hell, they did that at the last Woodstock, and they were just hippies and morons.
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