Paris Is Burning By Nicolas Sarkotzy Wall Street Journal | November 3, 2005 http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB113096861635386624-lMyQjAxMDE1MzAwMzkwNjM4Wj.html
Every night for the past week, the suburbs of Paris have been a showcase of Europe's failure to integrate its immigrants. Most of the rioting youths from the projects in Seine-Saint-Denis were born in France to African and North African parents and speak French. Yet these second-generation immigrants feel little attachment to France, much less a bright future in it, and therein lies the problem. Home to Europe's largest Muslim community -- nearly a tenth of its 60 million people -- France is the main testing ground of the Continent's ability to bring these recent newcomers into the fold. Germany, the Netherlands, Britain and Spain are in different ways struggling with the same challenge. All these countries have, not coincidentally, experienced or exported Islamic terrorism in the past four years. French governments of either political stripe historically preferred to ignore the problem festering out in the banlieues of the country's large cities. The initial response to this rioting, sparked last Thursday by the death of two local teens, betrayed no sense of urgency. As with most public issues in France today, the troubles became the latest excuse to posture with the 2007 presidential elections in mind. Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister who harbors dreams of moving into the Elysée Palace, stole the show from the rioters by calling them "scum" and "thugs" and vowing to end the rioting by force. The violence intensified. His chief rival and boss, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, stayed quiet for the first five days of the crisis, along with President Jacques Chirac, also a Sarkozy foe. That left the interior minister exposed to the inevitable attacks, from the right and left, for his tough talk. Another cabinet member, Equal Opportunities Minister Azouz Begag, lashed out at his "warlike semantics." This petty politicking might have continued were the real fighting in northeast of Paris not growing worse. Trouble started when the adolescents from Clichy-sous-Bois were electrocuted to death after hiding from the police in a power substation. The police say they weren't pursuing them. But by Tuesday night, the violence had spread to at least nine other towns. About 150 cars were set ablaze and dozens were arrested. With a major crisis on its hands, the government yesterday presented a unified front. "There cannot be 'no-go' areas in the Republic," Mr. Chirac told his ministers. Mr. Sarkozy's insistence on a "zero tolerance" approach to crime won him few friends among the elites. But the riots are foremost, in the here and now, a law-and-order problem. Most Frenchmen agree with their interior minister that the projects are overrun by criminals, racketeers, gangs and Islamic extremists. The 2002 elections were decided on the law-and-order issue, and the next poll may be no different. As in America's once blighted inner cities, the silent -- or rather, non-violent -- majority in the French ghettos wants streets free of crime. Policing alone won't solve Europe's integration problem. For all the recent fuss about his un-P.C. talk, Mr. Sarkozy stands out for another reason: He has dared propose the more creative, often progressive, solutions for the long haul. Mr. Sarkozy leads efforts to bring alive a "French Islam." The reality today is an Islam separate from and adversarial to France. A new Muslim council was founded two years overtly to give the community a political voice -- or, more cynically, co-opt it. The French state is pushing Muslim leaders to train clerics in France. For now, the country's mosques are led almost entirely by foreign imams with limited language skills and often open contempt for France and its ways. Institutionalized discrimination is a problem. No French Muslim or black African has risen on the country's political or business ladder. Mr. Sarkozy supports "positive discrimination" -- affirmative action to American ears. This proposal's chief merit is to force a debate. In another unusual move -- partly intended, no doubt, to gain new voters -- Mr. Sarkozy also recently proposed to extend the franchise to immigrants who've lived in France for over a decade. These are all serious ideas. More must be done to bring European immigrants into the mainstream and out of the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood and other extremist groups. But it's a start. Alas, the obvious, probably easiest, solution is a taboo. Europe's welfare state makes it difficult especially for low-skill, low-wage laborers to find work. In a system that protects the people already in jobs, and keeps unemployment stuck at 10% (nearly triple that for the young), little wonder that the banlieues are burning. The absence of economic opportunities is the real root of the problem for the underclass, be it in Europe or America. No better way exists to make someone feel part of a society than to give them a job in it. Among European countries, France is one of the most successful in assimilating newcomers. Poles, Armenians, Jews et al became Frenchmen. Muslims present a challenge without precedent. But the U.S. experience shows that all immigrants, regardless of race or creed, ultimately respond to the same incentives to embrace their new home. The people of Clichy-sous-Bois are not likely to be any different. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/uTGrlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -- This is ZESTGlobal. Post articles on international affairs to [email protected] If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTGlobal by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! 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