View From the Bushes

I've been following the riots in France with a great deal of interest. For those just joining us, about two weeks ago two "youngsters" were fleeing from the police and took refuge in a power substation and ended up getting electrocuted and dying, which proved to the match which ignited the conflagration. We'll get to what the rioters are upset about in a second. What's more interesting to me is the fight in the media over whether the term "muslim" should be used to describe the rioters.

The Reuters article I linked to did not contain the word, and in fact took pains to note that the riots were being conducted "by white youngsters as well as youths of African and Arab origin." So that's one side of the coin, and certainly I can see the point there: the riots are ostensibly about police treatment, poor job prospects, and in my opinion the emasculation imposed on people by the French welfare system. Obviously I would be upset if there were riots in Utah over, say, not getting the Winter Olympics, and the media chose to characterize it as Mormon rioting because there's so many Mormons in Utah, but on the other hand...

I have seen videos of the riots where those participating in them can be heard to shout "Allah Akbar" as they pillage and burn, you combine this with all of the other violence radical muslims are involved in and you can see why the idea that muslims are a big part of the rioting has a lot of traction. So that's the other side of the coin. To answer that would require a deeper look into the reasons for the rioting, which I thought I was going to get to, but it looks like I'm out of space, so maybe tomorrow.

Burdened by conscience
Ross