UPDATE: Updates moved to the bottom of the post.

It would be so much easier if the riots in France could be compared, as Glenn Reynolds suggested, to Watts. Watts was terrible but the range of possible results did not pose such a direct existential threat to Western Civilization in a major part of the world. The Paris Riots as they are called do indeed pose exactly such a threat, wishful thinking aside. It is impossible to see any result that does not completely alter the makeup of some of the oldest sections of Europe.

This morning Glenn linked to another article making the case, as Belgravia Dispatch did yesterday, that the riots are not the Islamic in nature. To a large portion of those of us who are realistic about the war on terror the idea that Islam is at the root, rubs us the wrong way. We want to believe with all of our hearts that Islam really does mean the Religion of Peace.

I say we but sometime ago I came to the conclusion that perhaps Islam’s idea of peace for infidels was the peace of death or less drastically the peace of slavery or even less drastically the peace of dhimmitude. Sure seemed like a lot of the civilizations that bordered them had a lot of peace after being conquered. Sometimes peace isn’t all its cracked up to be.

Anyways after a perfectly delightful introduction to the author of Adloyada by way of her travels in Europe it becomes obvious that her evidence proving her point was not all it could be. For instance she uses this photo to show that it was a decidedly un-Muslim like attitude that drove the rioters. Only problem was the photo was not of the rioters but of those who were protesting the riots. Clichy-Sous-Bois residents, some wearing t-shirts reading 'Death for Nothing', as they walk for the peace Saturday, Oct. 29, 2005,

Adloyada: Paris is burning: "The images of the rioters on the streets of Clichy show them sporting T-shirts labelled mort pour rien. [Died in vain] Now what could be more un-Islamic than that? No claiming of martyrdom or dozens of virgins here. "

Then the use of the Independent as a source buries the article simply because the Independent is anything but, on the issue of Islam. For instance the Independent makes the claim that only 50% of the rioters were Islamic. How did they come to that conclusion? The silence is deafening.

Yes this all would be so much easier if the riots in Europe resembled Watts. But wishing it was so won’t make it so. Yes the war on terror would all be so much easier if Islam was not at the core, but wishing it won’t make it so. No doubt that believing that Islam is at the core of our world wide war makes the road ahead seem overwhelmingly steep, but sometimes that is simply the road that must be taken.

More posts on that subject by your guitar strumming host. Example here
The Battle for Civilization...pick your partner and dosey doe
Was Muhammed an Islamist? Or was he a moderate?
Anyone seen a moderate Muslim laying around here?
Islam threatened by modernity...or not. A Response to Mr. Fukuyama

UPDATE #1: The incredibly valuable Brussels Journal shows the foolishness of wishful thinking. Especially dramatic is the plea from the Socialist Mayor of Paris begging the Army to intervene. No Pasaran! weighs in on the European MSM attempt to cover this up... Hey where did the lady torched in her wheelchair go ?

UPDATE #2: Michelle Malkin the French Attempt to pay off the rioters. My observation, if you want more of a certain behavior, reward it.

UPDATE #3 Glenn Reynolds points to Clive Davis by suggesting that Clive thinks the whole Paris Riots are overblown. Don't see any mention in the article about being overblown. Perhaps a bit more patient than the rest of us but he does not say overblown. Course the Mayor of Paris is in a serious tizzy. Maybe he knows something we don't? Here is the relevent quote of the Mayor of Paris “Women have been made to stop on the streets of my town. They were dragged from their cars by their hair, they were practically stoned and their cars were set ablaze... The situation is absolutely dramatic and inacceptable. This is a real scandal. I sound the alarm bell in my town. If the state is incapable of defending us, we will have no choice but to defend ourselves. My town has a psychiatric hospital which has been attacked with molotov cocktails. This is beyond comprehension. I have never seen anything like this in my entire life. I do not ask for the resignation of the Interior Minister [Nicolas Sarkozy]. I want him to do his job. At the moment he is not doing his job. A French Socialist Mayor asking for the military? Maybe the problem isn't so much that we are overblowing it but that we are underblowing it by a huge margin.

UPDATE #4 Thomas Sowell has his take on the matter here. He isn't very sympathatic to those who would avoid pointing fingers towards Islam. hattip Betsy's Page
End of UPDATE

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