November 03, 2005

7th Night of Rioting by Muslims in Paris—And a Discussion of Its Causes

From CNN:

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Police are bracing for another night of violence in the suburbs of Paris after officers and fire crews faced gunfire as they battled rioters who attacked a commuter train and set buses, a school and a car dealership ablaze.

Ministers were under growing pressure Thursday to deal with the unrest in the impoverished areas north and east of the French capital. The violence was triggered last week by the electrocution deaths of two teenagers.

"It's a dramatic situation. It is very serious and we fear that the events could even get worse tonight," said Francis Masanet, secretary general of a police union, according to Reuters.

The rioting is doing great damage:

More than 1,000 police were deployed to quell the unrest Wednesday night and early Thursday. Rampaging youths torched 177 vehicles, including two public buses, in at least nine towns.

In the northeastern suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois, a Renault dealership was set on fire and at least a dozen cars were burned. A supermarket and local gymnasium were also torched, The Associated Press reported. 

Here's CNN's description of the causes of the riot:

The rioting began last Thursday in Clichy-sous-Bois after two teenagers were accidentally electrocuted and a third was injured while apparently trying to escape from police by hiding in a power substation. Officials have said police were not chasing the boys.

But the original cause has been all but forgotten as residents of other communities -- weary of poverty, unemployment and discrimination against the large immigrant and Muslim populations -- have vented their frustration.

In some areas, unemployment runs as high as 20 percent -- more than twice the national average, de Villepin told lawmakers.

Note that CNN blames France for the riots, saying the communities are "weary of poverty, unemployment and discrimination." This statement by CNN exemplifies: 

• The poor analysis provided by MSM, as discussed in this previous post. 
• Humanity's relatively short-term memory, as discussed previously here. 
• The "dhimmi" effect, discussed by Bat Ye'or, in which people of Judeo-Christian cultures sometimes adopt the Islamic view of themselves as second-class citizens when they are in contact with a sufficiently large Muslim population, discussed previously here. CNN is doing a great job of blaming France for this scurrilous attack on it by Islamists.
  

In fact, it is the Muslim tradition that prevents these Islamists from working and integrating into the community. From a Freedom House report on publications distributed in mosques in the U.S.:

...the Saudi publications state that Muslims are not to work for the infidel. For example, the Saudi government high school textbook collected from the Al- Farouq mosque in Houston states:

“For a Muslim to be employed in the service of an unbeliever is something forbidden.  The reason is because it gives authority to control and demean the believer to the unbeliever.” [Document No. 32]

The Saudi publications also instruct Muslims that it is preferable not to hire non- Muslims, especially within the Arabian Peninsula, but, if they do, they have to hate them. In fatwas on the “Treatment of Servants,” published [Document No. 36] by the Saudi Embassy to Washington and collected from the Islamic Center in East Orange, N.J., the late Saudi Grand Mufti Bin Baz states the following about how to handle an infidel domestic worker:

“The women in your household do not have to stay away from her, but they should not treat her as they would treat a Muslim woman. They have to hate her for Allah’s sake....” [Document No. 36]

In his best-selling book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), Robert Spencer discusses the Koranic underpinnings for this refusal to work. The first reason is the Koran's requirement that Muslims kill non-Muslims, or make them second-class citizens, resulting in the instruction, quoted above, not to work for non-Muslims. The second is a Koranic instruction that God is not bound to be good, and therefore the universe is not bound to be rational or comprehensible. From Spencer, page 94 - 96:

"No one is good but God alone." -- Jesus (Mark 10:18)

"The Jews say: 'Allah's hand is chained.' May their own hands be chained! May they be cursed for what they say! By no means. His hands are both outstretched: He bestows as He will." -- Qur'an 5:64

The idea that Allah's hand is "not chained" is a reflection of his absolute freedom and sovereignty. If God is good, as Jesus says, His goodness may be discernible in the consistency of creation; but in Islam, even to call Allah good would be to bind him. 

...[Islamic scholar] Al-Ghazali and others took issue with the very idea that there were laws of nature; that would be blasphemy, a denial of Allah's freedom. To say that he created the universe according to consistent, rational laws, or that he "cannot" do something ... would be to bind his absolute sovereignty. His will controls all, but it is inscrutable.

Thus modern science developed in Christian Europe rather than in the House of Islam.

CNN blames France for the poverty and unemployment of France's Islamic population, as if it was invented in France. CNN's memory doesn't even go back to the mid-1900's, when (per Spencer, page 92) Winston Churchill said:

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. 

...Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die. But the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science -- the science against which it had vainly struggled -- the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.

The poverty and unemployment of France's Islamic population are not due to policies or behavior of the French.  They are due to Islamic traditions against work.  

Max Boot: Libby “Was Indicted For Covering Up Something That Wasn’t A Crime”

Max Boot makes the same point I made earlier this week:

But with his investigation all but over, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has found no criminal conspiracy and no violations of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which makes it a crime in some circumstances to disclose the names of undercover CIA operatives. Among other problems, Plame doesn't seem to fit the act's definition of a "covert agent" — someone who "has within the last five years served outside the United States." By 2003, Plame had apparently been working in Langley, Va., for at least six years, which means that, mystery of mysteries, the vice president's chief of staff was indicted for covering up something that wasn't a crime.