Sins of Omission

Can YOU find the missing word in this AP article?

Youths armed with gasoline bombs fanned out from Paris' poor, troubled suburbs to shatter the tranquility of leafier towns, torching 900 vehicles, a nursery school and other targets, police said Saturday, in the worst wave of arson since the urban violence began more than a week ago.

Hrm. Youths. Yes, youths are involved. What kinds of youths?

The violence, which was originally concentrated in neighborhoods northeast of Paris with large immigrant populations, is forcing France to confront anger long-simmering in its suburbs, where many Africans and their French-born children live on society's margins, struggling with unemployment, poor housing, racial discrimination, crime and a lack of opportunities.

Ah, youths from African immigrant families. Which parts of Africa? Liberia? Zimbabwe? The article doesn't say. Let's try another article.

The violence, which was concentrated in neighborhoods with large African and Muslim populations but has since spread . . .

Uh oh. Jamey Keaten used the M-word. Just wait until his editor finds out. There will hell to pay. Why, people might begin to think radicalized Islamist types would do such things as, oh let's say, torch nursery schools and pour gasoline on disabled people before lighting a match.

The Religion of Peace - Is there anything it can't do?

Comments

[The Malcontent]

I can think of at least one word to describe the first story: complicity.

[Don]

Sometimes you wonder if western civilization will just PC itself out of existence.

[North Dallas Thirty]

Surely you jest, Robbie. The rioters are privileged white French youths who are justified in their anger and actions because of discrimination against and lack of economic opportunity for Muslims and those of African or Arab descent.

Hardy har har.

[Essem]

Don, that is the very point of PC.

[anthony]

at the risk of being showered with abuse for being pc: i don't see anything specifically muslim or islamic about the violence. there is a lack of leadership in the violence along with the reports that seem to point to the usual criminal types who are trying to profit from it.

How is this different from any group of long-term unemployed marginalised group of young men? I just don't see the muslim side as important in this. If we had cries of jihad from the imams and broad support from muslim groups for the violence then i'd agree the muslim tag was important.

in fact what we have is a fairly typical uprising from the poor. they do this from time to time but you can trust me when I say that my family has put up with the poor for a thousand years and they might have won a few battles but the still haven't won the war.

[Robbie]

I'm not sure if you've read the latest news articles, Anthony, but French police discovered a gasoline bomb factory, and they've reported Islamic militant elements involved in inciting the violence.

Still, the Islamic factor is important because of the multiculturalist mindset that allowed this to happen. European countries embraced "diversity" and felt no great need to acclimate and assimilate African and Arab immigrants into their societies. In Britain, you may have noticed they've debating the merits of "Britishness" for years.
As a result, these immigrants didn't fold into society as, say, American immigrants tend to do. Instead of identifying primarily as French or British or Dutch, second and third generation immigrants are identifying primarily as Muslim.

This is creating a massive cultural divide, with western liberal values be assaulted by these growing ranks of unassimilated immigrants. Anti-semitism is way up, violent attacks against homosexuals are up, domestic abuse numbers are on the rise, and honor killings are increasing as time goes on.

Europe didn't want to address this problem. They believed they were rather sophisticated for having a continent will all kinds of different cultures. They held tightly to PC values, even when they became an anchor dragging them to the bottom of a demographic trench.

It isn't simply "the poor." There is a lot more at work here. The thrust of the problem is very much cultural.

[Tristan]

Don't believe the american je.. masonic propaganda. There is nothing going on in Paris... barely of few economically challenged young people put their car in fire to collect the insurance. Everything is fine.

[Jesse]

We're rather ignoring France's history of suburban mob violence here. In the US, Urban areas tend to have high concentrations of disaffected poor and ethnic minorities, but Paris and other French cities have exactly the opposite The suburbs become "red belts" of poverty and working class resentment. Also France has a history of trying to forcibly assimilate ethnic minority groups; they are using similar methods as Turkey by not allowing the wearing of religious iconography in schools (shawls, crosses, stars of David), but their lack of pluralism seems to generate its own resentment and alienation from the popular culture. Maybe the best indication of assimilation is the rioting itself, even a cursory read of French history since the late 1700s shows that staging a revolution is the most French thing one can possibly do.