Posted on 11/09/2005 12:05:20 PM PST by NormsRevenge
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - France's riots have set off a round of troubled debate across the Arab world: Most here blame a failure to offer opportunity to immigrants, but others see a more ominous clash of cultures over Islam.
Across the Middle East, the images of burning cars and stone-throwing young people have dominated newspapers and television. Analysts have hotly debated the riots' meaning, their cause and whether they might spread.
"The anger displayed, and the intensity with which it has spread, is alarming," said one Persian Gulf political analyst, Abdul Khaleq Abdulla.
Most attribute the flare-ups to social injustice and high unemployment, rather than anti-Islamic discrimination or a wider culture clash. They have urged the French government — and the Western world at large — to take concrete steps to rectify the problem.
"There are no puzzles here. The core problem is mass degradation and alienation manifesting themselves in ... belts of educated, usually unemployed, young men throughout Arab and Asian urban areas; and in parallel urban zones of mass disenfranchisement and marginalization," said Rami Khouri, writing Wednesday in the Lebanon Daily Star.
Added Al-Arabiya director Abdel Rahman al-Rashed: "These are the voices of a community that has no voice on the political scene."
But Iran has taken a more provocative slant, blaming anti-Islamic sentiment that it contends is widespread across Europe.
"Restrictions imposed on the Islamic dress code in France are an official policy there and the government has suppressed minorities' beliefs and humiliated them openly," the hard-line Jomhuri Eslami daily said in a commentary.
Immigrants tend to blend in more in the United States, while in Europe the barriers of culture, language and class are high, noted Shafiq al-Ghabra, the president of the American University in Kuwait, in his column in Al-Rai Al-Aam daily.
The worry is that right-wing groups will gain power in France because of the uprisings, he said.
"Will Europe enter into a confrontation phase with Muslims on its territories?" he asked.
Many of those rioting are French-born children of immigrants from France's former Arab and north African territories like Algeria. Community leaders in France's slums have long complained of a lack of jobs and widespread discrimination.
Among government leaders in the Arab world, the images of streets on fire raised many alarms.
In Saudi Arabia, the official Saudi Press Agency reported Wednesday that King Abdullah, in a telephone conversation with French President Jacques Chirac, expressed "the kingdom's hope that the French government would be able to put an end to the acts of sabotage."
The Jordan Times, an English-language daily, compared the French riots to those three years ago in Maan, a poor city in southern Jordan that is an Islamist stronghold and frequently prone to rioting.
"Many blamed the riots on Islamic fundamentalism, exactly like many today are speaking of religious violence in the Parisian banlieues (suburbs)," said the Jordan Times in an editorial. "But deep down, they are two stories of denied opportunities, forgotten reform."
I do not think Europe has any lessons to learn from Islamic countries.
Kristopher.
Yeah so to get back at those racists French who treat OUR PEOPLE so badly, we;ll blow up a Hotel or 2 in Jordan.
(And they wonder why Isralies are at the forefront of Medicine, Engineering and Technology and they are at the forefront of NOTHING but blasse terrorism).
I think that pretty much covers it. Did I miss anything?
Heh heh. But rioting is sure to reverse that trend.
Discrimination? Obviously the French weren't too discriminating when they gave millions of Islamics French citizenship.
Like this?
Saudi Arabia - Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is punishable by death. Bibles are illegal. Churches are illegal.
Yemen - Bans proselytizing by non-Muslims and forbids conversions. The Government does not allow the building of new non-Muslim places of worship.
Kuwait - Registration and licensing of religious groups. Members of religions not sanctioned in the Koran may not build places of worship. Prohibits organized religious education for religions other than Islam.
Egypt - Islam is the official state religion and primary source of legislation. Accordingly, religious practices that conflict with Islamic law are prohibited. Muslims may face legal problems if they convert to another faith. Requires non-Muslims to obtain what is now a presidential decree to build a place of worship.
Algeria - The law prohibits public assembly for purposes of practicing a faith other than Islam. Non-Islamic proselytizing is illegal, and the Government restricts the importation of non-Islamic literature for distribution.
Jordan - Has the death penalty for any Muslim selling land to a Jew.
Sudan - Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is punishable by death.
Pakistan - Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is punishable by death. Bans proselytizing by non-Muslims. Christians regularly put in prison for charges of blasphemy.
There are a couple dozen muslim paradises close at hand for them to choose from. I suggest that France begin sending them to paradise now.
"Islam: we gave the world the Zero a thousand years ago, and not a damn thing since then."
Or "Islam: we gave the world the Zero a thousand years ago, and Zero since then"
I izz a victim of so ci etay!
Amputations and beheadings are reserved for after prayers on Fridays.
I can't say I was expecting a period of introspection.
Arabs blame French society, discrimination
THEN
Go back to whatever arab country you came from, you won't have these problems, and you will be happy in your new-found islamo-bliss!
So do the French. When will they learn? Will it be too late? The French have nothing to learn from these Arabs, but they should take a lesson from the US, Australia, and others willing to fight the terrorism. And soon.
First they should remove the plank in their own eye.
Notice it's never 'their' fault...
I believe the zero, like "arabic" numerals, is a Hindu invention.
No they didn't.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.