I've tried to explain that what happened in France with the riots was not Muslim extremism but rather typical (if fiery) large-scale French demonstrative politics.
What FRANCE saw in those riots (as opposed to FReepers in the US) was that the Beurs are culturally integrated, but economically excluded.
WHY did the French see that?
Is it because we all have shit for brains?
No. It is because we see the very clear distinction between the Islamists BLOWING UP trains in London and Madrid, or stabbing to death Van Gogh in Holland, and angry unemployed Beur youths in the Paris banlieux. One man died in three weeks of riots in France. Had that really been a MUSLIM riot (as opposed to an angry FRENCH youth demonstration) there would have been ten thousand dead and martial law.
Nobody LIKED the riots, of course, but most people in France, of both major political camps, saw them for what they were. And there WAS a silver lining in all of it: the combination of real French integration efforts AND hard-line counterterrorism policing meant that a national immigrant manifestation, in France, stayed within the bounds of hard French labor unrest: some fires, some fists. It did NOT turn into characteristically Muslim mayhem and murder.
Had Madrids, or even a Van Gogh, happened in France the mood would be different.
Once the Danish cartoons came out and the protests began, first France Soir, then Hebdo and le Canard both jumped in.
Obviously French people are not going to tolerate anybody telling them what to say or do. They don't take it from the Americans, even; they're certainly not going to take it from a bunch of Arabs.
It didn't make the press in the US much, but there was an editorial by a French Muslim scholar who stated flat out that there is nothing in Islam that prohibits a sense of humor about religion.
Of course the French papers ridiculed the Islamist riots over a cartoon. The French ridicule everything and anyone. That isn't going to stop because foreigners get their panties in a wad. When have the French given a damn about what ANYBODY else thought? OF COURSE they will give the Muslim radicals the finger. They give everybody the finger.
I value your opinion, so I pulled you to the thread. Thank you for the detailed post. From what I understand, the Islamic element was not the main one in the riots, but is present in the radicalization of the dissatisfied.
Also, I wish French were more consistent with the finger. Specifically in the 70th when they showed finger to Israel and did not show to Arabs.
Denial works wonders...for a while.
"OF COURSE they will give the Muslim radicals the finger. They give everybody the finger."
Might be hard to back up that big finger in years to come when all the little French fingers are half Muslim.
France is not an Island. Come out of the bubble and live with the rest of us.