My apologies for deleting the comment.

LGF quotes the NY Sun on that point:

How ethnic is the present violence in France? Liberal commentators, both in France and abroad, tend to say that poverty and unemployment, rather than race or religion, are the driving force behind the riots. Mr. Villepin himself tends to share this view, at least in part. He said yesterday on TV that he is earmarking enormous credits for housing rehabilitation, education, and state-supported jobs in the areas where the unrest has developed. But the fact remains that only ethnic youths are rioting, that most of them explicitly pledge allegiance to Islam and such Muslim heroes as Osama bin Laden, that the Islamic motto – Allahu Akbar – is usually their war cry, and that they submit only to archconservative or radical imams.

The fact also remains, according to many witnesses, that the rioters torch only “white” cars, meaning white owned cars, and spare “Islamic” or “black” ones. One way to discriminate between them is to look for ethnic signs like a sticker with Koranic verses or a picture of the Kaaba in Mekka or a stylized map of Africa. Further evidence of the animating influence in the riots lies with the French rap music to which the perpetrators listen. Such music obsessively describes White France as a sexual prey.

And thanks to Dr. Victorino de la Vega for the civil and well-informed comment. (I have been collecting evidence for my argument that some departments in our colleges and universities should simply be closed. It is always helpful to have another example to illustrate my argument.)

Anyone who wants to see where Doctor Vic is coming from should check out his blog. Or better yet, read the Wikipedia entry he cites and see if it really says that during the 1992 LA riots “more than 60 ‘n******’ [were] executed on the spot” or that “US Marines massacred their way into the remnants of the Black ghetto.”

To address the substance of his argument, such as it is: Young muslims have torched thousands of cars and assaulted police in apparently related riots in numerous French cities. What does he think is going on and why does he think the rioters are using the tactics they are using? Or are these uninteresting questions so long as it can be pointed out that there have been bad riots in the USA.

I don’t see why that would be unlikely.

From Reuters: France will give local government officials the authority to impose curfews in areas hit by rioting to try to halt almost two weeks of unrest, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced on Monday. Villepin ruled out army int…

Some of the pictures show some non-North Africans being arrested, which prompts the question who else is joining in. And, moving on from there, who is rioting in other places, like Evreux? I would genuinely like to know the answer. The journos seem to be staying in Paris.

http://no-pasaran.blogspot.com/2005/11/manimals.html

If that doesn’t cross the line, then what does?

(Or is this all conspiracy theorizing? Too soon to say.)

Joseph C. Wilson IV: The French Connection
The American Thinker, by James Lewis

More conspiracy theories.

On the other hand, France has a long history of massive civil disturbances. Perhaps there is just a cultural understanding of how far one goes in such circumstances. Perhaps the riots are more ritual that anarchy.

The rioters aren’t as representative for French Muslims like the terrorists are for the Palestinians. The people, inclusing the Muslims, most affected riots are throughly fed up and are staging protest marches.

Don’t forget, the LA riots hit balck areas most severely. Apart from some excursions by young rioters, the same is true for Muslim areas in France.