Free Republic

POLICE in Paris are struggling to cope with the fall out from a plague of riots which have kicked off in the city’s northern suburbs. Five large areas have been reduced to no go areas for the past five nights as masked men cause mayhem on the streets. Now there are fears the fall out from allegations of police brutality could spread all over the country as unrest in the city grows. Residents have been on lockdown as armed police tried to tackle the rioters who have caused millions of pounds of damage. The areas of Aulnay-Sous-Bois, Aulnay, Argenteuil, Bobigny...

Vandals in France torched 945 parked cars over New Year's Eve in an arson rampage that has become a sinister annual "tradition" and amid a row over whether the government had sought to play down the figures. According to the French interior ministry, the total of 945, which included cars that were either "totally destroyed" or "more lightly affected", amounted to a 17 per cent rise compared to last year. Despite this, New Year's Eve "went off without any major incident", the interior ministry insisted in a statement, adding that there were only "a few troubles with public order", In...

A New Year’s Eve tradition for some in France of torching empty, parked cars has continued into 2013. Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday that 1,193 vehicles were burned overnight around the country, where the stunt began in the 1990s. “In France’s rundown suburbs, it has become as much of a New Year tradition as champagne and fireworks in more affluent neighbourhoods,” the Agence France-Presse

Hundreds of Cars Torched in France at New Year Fri Jan 1, 2010 PARIS (Reuters) - Youths burned 1,137 cars across France overnight as New Year's Eve celebrations once again turned violent, the French Interior Ministry said on Friday. Car burnings are regular occurrences in poor suburbs that ring France's big cities, but the arson is especially prevalent during New Year's Eve revelry. The number of vehicles torched was only 10 short of the record 1,147 burned this time last year, even though the Interior Ministry mobilized 45,000 police during the night -- 10,000 more than 12 months ago.

"After his death, at least 50 youths took to the streets and started to break windows at the entrance of Gabelle, an outskirt of the city. The youths also burned garbage, tires, a motorcycle and five vehicles in a shipyard, said the police. When the Police and the fire-fighters arrived on the scène, protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails against them. Then, the police retaliate by firing tear gas but it was unable to enter into Gabelle." Think about that last sentence for a minute. "France/Civil unrest: clashes erupted in Fréjus after a young man killed himself," from ESISC, October...

Elections: France's radical leftists lost big when Nicolas Sarkozy got elected president on May 6. But they aren't going without a tantrum. Stirring up riots, they're now trying to intimidate French voters. They'll likely lose. Through a new round of post-election riots, a nasty but determined fringe of French leftists is showing an amazing unfitness for democracy. Their "demonstrations" are not over dirty tricks, broken laws or electoral operations. Just a hatred at the result. The rioters have alliances with various grievance groups, including France's unassimilated Muslims. But they're best described as anarchists, radical leftists and the 10% of France's...

Muslim groups will be criticised by the Tories today for being too concerned with their own preservation rather than with promoting understanding. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, will attend the launch of a mid-term report of a policy group on community cohesion headed by Dame Pauline Neville- Jones, a former head of the Joint Intelligence Committee. The report, entitled Uniting the Country, also attacks multi-culturalism in Britain for "tending to foster difference for its own sake''. Publication of the interim findings of the Conservative Group on National and International Security - one of several policy groups set up by Mr...

First IAF strike kills two men in Rafah; two activists killed in second strike on their car in Gaza City Three Hamas members were killed Tuesday evening in two Israel Air Force strikes. At first, the IAF struck a car in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. One Hamas members who was in the car were killed, and another was critically wounded and later died of his wounds. Palestinian sources said that the two were apparently on their way to fire rockets at Kibbutz Nahal Oz in southern Israel. Sources in the Israel Defense Forces said that the two...

A long article by Robert S. Leiken, "Europe's Angry Muslims," in the July/August 2005 issue of Foreign Affairs, written before the recent London bombings, when it is read in conjunction with the economist-columnist Paul Krugman's column in the New York Times this past Friday (July 29), entitled "French Family Values," brings into focus important issues of immigration policy, and, more fundamentally, of the different economic and cultural models of the United States and Western Europe. Leiken points out the strong appeal of Islamic extremism to the large Muslim minorities in countries such as France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the...