These young thugs are mere vandals. And, lest anyone forget, it was the repeated concessions made by Rome to the Vandals, that brought down a once-mighty empire.

Yet it is precisely the behavior of vandals that Ms. Al-Jadda admires, especially "the acts of civil unrest carried out by young African-Americans before their grievances were addressed by the U.S. government in the 1960s." Burning and vandalizing American cities "gained many civil, political and human rights that benefit all minorities in the country today."

There you have Ms. Al-Jadda's prescription: young Muslim vandals should burn European cities until the governments give them "job opportunities."

If Ms. Al-Jadda had intended to offer Western Civilization advice on how to decline and fall, she could not have phrased it better.

Souhelia Al-Jadda informs the west that we must "acknowledge the frustrations of the youth and genuinely implement sweeping reforms to improve social conditions for minorities" or be subjected to an "intifada" and see our cities burned by marauders of the sort who are setting fire to cars and schools in France tonight.

I really don't like being extorted.

As a great American statesman once said: Millions for defense, but not a penny for tribute.

He wasn't a Frenchman, though. France is paying everything as Ms. Al-Jadda demands.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/Production/files/podhoretz1205advance.html

this use of civil rights language is typical of demopathy
http://www.seconddraft.org/ess_demopaths.php

Demopaths are people who use democratic language and invoke human rights only when it serves their interests, and not when it calls for self-criticism or self-restraint. Demopaths demand stringent levels of human “rights” but do not apply these basic standards for the “other” to their own behavior. The most lethal demopaths use democratic rights to destroy democracy.

Translation of his article: It's all the West's fault. We're evil. Islam is good. There, I just summed up his whole Op-Ed in 10 words. Can I get a job with the New York Times/Washington Post/Boston Globe/Philadelphia Inquirer/Los Angeles Times/Chicago Tribune, etc., now?

Isirota: Don't be sexist ;) Al Jadda is a proud, hijab-wering Muslim woman.

Why I Wear the Hijab, by Souheila Al-Jadda

www.imdiversity.com/villages/woman/ dialogue_opinion_letters/pns_hijab_0305.asp - 41k -

http://www.spectator.co.uk/article_pfv.php?id=6901

Mal, great link. Thanks.

While I certainly agree with the demopathy concept and the other sentiments in this thread, including the links provided by mal, also with the idea that MLK didn't burn down Brimingham of course, nonetheless there were events in U.S. history such as the Tulsa, Oklahoma race riots, circa 1920, which were similar to what has been occurring in France.

Still, France remains sui generis nonetheless and the author fails to note significant aspects which do not comport with the situation in the U.S. such as France's systemic socialist and non-racialist aspects, e.g., the Corbusier architecture/isolation several blogs have noted recently, also economic barriers such as the fact that if a shop owner or other employer were to hire an immigrant they aren't able to fire them (if they don't work out) without paying them for 20+ months due to excessively socialist policies enforced by the state. And of course this is taking place within the global situation, which cannot be merely dismissed or overlooked, given longer term demographic concerns coupled with aggressive Muslim initiatives and of course the even more aggressive initiatives of militant Islamicists.

While generally agreeing, I'd temper some outlooks as well.

I agree with you, Michael. I have pretty well avoided commenting on the events in France because it's such a big issue and most of the commentary I've read so far has struck me as similar to the blind men describing the elephant and unable to put it all together.

Still, I couldn't let the civil disobedience bit go by.

Michael, There is a fine line between seeking to understand causes and making excuses. Just as there is a fine line between the spontaneous eruption of an irate underclass, and the calculated decision to riot in order to intimidate a government ito making concessions. Such an intifada, of course, does not have to coordinated by a central committee. The calculation can be made by individuals who think alike, just as many decisions to commit terrorism are now made quite independently by individuals who have no connection beyond believing in the same world view. It is difficult to tell which has been going on in France.

Two things, however, are very clear. One is that contemporary world has many groups at least as badly discriminated against by the societies into which they were born as are France's Muslim immigrants. One thinks of the dalit of India, the roma in Hungary, the Amerindians in several parts of Latin America - none of whom are burning cars.

The other is that whatever the cause of these riots was, the young people burning cars and buildings in France grew up in a curtural milieu in which the Muslim immigrants and the French establishment agree on few things. However, one of the few things that the immigrants and the ancestrally-French agree upon is that the Palestinians are fully justified in their murderous rage, and that their violent tactics are to be applauded.

Surely there is some link between the endless cheerleading by the French media for the noble Palestinian intifada and what is happening tonight in the streets of France.

Anna, yes, in fact I'm 100% in agreement with you at least as regards your most recent post, assumming I understand you correctly. Nothing I posted, rightly understood, would contradict what you've indicated. (Am less certain about agreeing 100% with your first post, but nothing in particular that is worth quibbling over. Essentially I'm less certain than you seem to be that the author, Souhelia Al-Jadda, is unamenable to some correctives. But again, it's a subjective assessment and is not really worth quibbling over.)

True. thanks.