On the other hand, reading the reactions of the parents of the rioters to what their children are doing, you'd have to guess that, after the Koran, the second most-followed book in their households must by Dr. Benjamin Spock's "Baby and Child Care". But even the boomer parents didn't abrogate responsibility for disciplining their kids to this extent.

Parents, if you cannot control the little darlings, and you want the state to do it for you, you will have no right to complain when the Ohio National Guard puts a stop to this rock-throwing and arson nonsense.

The riots in the 60's were orchestrated and funded by Moscow and Christianity can be blamed for them in part because Christian other religious leaders fully approved of the methods as well as the dogma. I lived through that period and don’t remember a lot of condemnation of the anti-war hysteria and the violence it engendered coming from pulpits.

Most of the foolish kids who participated had no idea what was going on, as the son of neighbor said at the time, we only go to pick up girls and the reverse was probably true as well.

Is this a great country or what! Thanks to the brilliance of our founding fathers and the excellence of the gene pool brought by the countless waves of immigrants yearning to breathe free, we can stand up against whatever they throw at us.

John, Moslem parents consulting Dr. Spock? What a picture that would make. Better they consult Mr. Spock.

I don't know whether I "buy" this article. There probably are some Muslim parents saying things like this, but it is suspicious to me.

The few parents who say this could be sincere or they could very well be blowing smoke in French authorities' eyes as part of their "verbal jihad."

It also seems like a journalist's efforts to make Muslims seem just like any ordinary French parent whose children are out of control, victims of a permissive society. "See, they're really just like us!"

But I remember other news articles from the past which reported that Muslim communities in France have "ordered" French authorities to stay out, that they wanted to run their own affairs through their local emirs. Within these communities they practice polygamy in defiance of French law, they engage in honor-killing, etc. I remember reports of roving gangs of Muslim youths, raping ethnically French women; and when the youths are brought to trial, they are unrepentant and their mothers sit in the courtroom and call the French women "whores." It seems to me that these Muslim youths are acting this way because they have gotten since childhood a lot of strong verbal and non-verbal permission from their communities to do just this.

Think of it like the inner city criminal gangs of the 1980's, with a dose of Jihad! mixed with it as opposed to being just Crips and Bloods. Remove the drug trade (though that probably goes on also) and add Jihad! for fun, profit, and status. What parent was going to take on them?

The riots in the 60s were part of a campaign for American blacks to become fully American. The riots in Paris are part of a campaign for Muslims in France to be able to ignore the French.

you can tell the muslim youths that have "pulled a knife" on their fathers -- they are the ones missing hands. their are inummerable examples of muslims decrying their inability to control a situation that they clearly want to continue. take the palestinian PM (with regard to palestinian terrorists).

if you want to compare like with like then use the black panther movement and black sepratism.

One thing further, in the article I notice that the man trying to organize the march of Muslim parents to plead to end the rioting is a non-Muslim mayor. Where are the Muslim leaders.

Another thing, the MSM also seems to be really ignoring the Muslim riots in Aarhus, Denmark. Here's a link to a blogger with more info: http://www.americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=3574

David:

If that's true, why aren't Muslim immigrants in North America seeking the same?

I take L Rogers' and mohan's point about disingenuous parents here--I remember those Pali parents who couldn't control little rock-throwing nine year old Abdullah who was just so upset about losing the family estate in Jaffa in '48--but surely this has a lot to do with how Europeans have treated these immigrants and their refusal to permit or recognize assimilation. Also, I recall very recently similar complaints and initiatives by Caribbean parents in Britain.

Sure, there is lots about Islam that makes assimilation in the West a challenge and lots of good reasons to keep our eyes open and powder dry, but is this any different than Chinese immigrants a century ago brimming with notions of honour, fealty and ancestor worship or Hindus awash in caste consciousness? They got over it, so why do we assume Muslims can't, especially seeing as many of them obviously are?

I must disgagree with Orrin: Islam has a lot to do with the current riots in France and Denmark. The youts throwing rocks and burning stuff aren't angry Unitarians, after all.

There is, at the heart of the riot, a desire amongst young Muslims to live in a caliphate: a land where Islam is supreme and their problems (they think) will be solved; where jobs will exist, women will know their place, and infidels (you and me) won't have any power over them. That's a powerful image, be it dream or illusion. For young men who have grown up in a country that pretty much hates and despises them, where a variety of social ills keep them from realizing any potential, and where the future is bleak: the idea that one can tear down the society and rebuild it to a better image is a powerful idea.

That idea is radical Islam.

Ok, I'll bite. What is it about the riots that contradicts Islam? So far as I can see Islam sanctions pretty much anything the jihadi feels like doing.

It's all about The Big A: Anomie. Emile Durkheim ... a Frenchman, of all things ... wrote the book on this more than a century ago. Simply put, there is no center to hold.

Burn it all down!

Peter: North America might not be a useful phrase in this particular case. Muslim immigration to the US compared to France is smaller as a percentage of the population and is more or less restricted to middle-class professionals. Plus, we're just better at assimilation, in part because our expectations are more modest. France wants its immigrants to become French; we just want them to work hard and not cause too much trouble. If we get a couple of exotic dishes for our kitchens, so much the better.

Canada, so far, hasn't had it so bad, mostly because it, too, has relatively few Muslim immigrants. However, you guys show distressing signs of kowtowing to immigrant sensibilities, and might well have trouble in the future.

"there is lots about Islam that makes assimilation in the West a challenge "

And there are no good reasons to allow Muslims to immigrate in the first place.

Yes, we'd be much better off without all those doctors and software engineers.

In France, as in Canada and even the US, even the angriest Muslims do not want to return (to Egypt, to India, to Pakistan, to Lebanon, to anywhere else). They will stay and grow old, and their kids will be Americans.

Ok, I'll bite. What is it about the riots that contradicts Islam?

If the article above is to be considered representative, then rebelling against one's parents, for one.

you guys show distressing signs of kowtowing to immigrant sensibilities

We certainly do. Fortunately we have lots of sensible immigrants to set us straight.

In Cul de Sac The Daily Duck has its take on this.

What might come as a surprise to Peter is that isn't far from his.

I can live just fine without Muslim engineers and doctors, actually.

Of the 4 leaders of le gauchisme only Jacques Sauvageot was from a Christian background. Roughly 60% of the lower level leaders of those Paris 1968 riots were from non-Christian families. Until after well after Tet, the situation was similiar in America.

The problem, for a long while, has not been Christians but those who have issues with Christians.

Carter

It's good to see that David Cohen is onboard with a merit based immigration policy.

I'm agnostic on the issue of the Islamic religion as a factor in the apparently overrated French riots, but the parallel with the US allowing unfettered illegal immigration of Mestizos to fill low wage jobs could very well present the US with the same dilemna that the French are facing now.

h-man. Big difference between the melting pot and the multi-culters.

We welcome hard working immigrants who come to the U.S. because they want to become Americans and make a better life for themselves and their families. Their children then have the opportunity to rise to the top positions of power and influence.

Only in America.

Bienvendidos amigos.

Blaming the current rioting on Islam makes about as much sense as blaming the urban riots of the ‘60s on Christianity.

Sorry, Peter, poor analogy. Our '60s riots weren't blamed on Christianity because Christianity did not distinguish the rioters from everybody else. Race did, so they were called "race riots." Imagine if the rioters then were Christian, but everybody else in the U.S. was Buddhist. Then, they might well have been called "Christian riots," and with some justification.

These are "Muslim riots" in France because 1) most or all of the rioters are Muslim, and 2) the non-rioters are mostly not.

Papaya:

Then why didn't middle-class and rural blacks riot?

"Race riots" doesn't mean that all members of a particular race are rioting, only that the rioters are of a particular race. (Though of course race riots involve more than one race.) Similarly, "Muslim riots" doesn't imply all Muslims are rioting, only that the rioters are Muslims, and in an area where they are a minority. It would make no sense to call riots in Saudi Arabia, say, "Muslim riots" because then the religion would not be a distinguishing factor.

Papaya:

But what would you call riots sparked by the matwan or the ulema in reaction to a 'loosening' of religious control (in Saudi Arabia)? They would be religious riots, would they not? Or if the general population in a city (Jedda, perhaps) just decided they have had enough of the religious police, and started hanging them? I would think that in Saudi Arabia, people would riot for only religious reasons, either in reaction to oppression or in trying to intensify it. And any political riots (against the royals) would obviously have religion running all through them.

Jim: Sure, I'd call those "religious riots," because "Muslim" wouldn't distinguish between the rioters and the rest.