Jason Burke, The Observer, November 13:
"Analysts and commentators often seek to find evidence to support their well-established ideas in any given event. So while critics of the 'French social model' have gleefully seen evidence of its failure in the recent violence in France, its supporters have seen evidence of the damage done by right-wing policies in the country. But little compares with the extraordinary way in which the disturbances of the last two weeks have been hijacked by those who appear set on either finding, or creating, a 'clash of civilisations' between Islam and the West.
"Take one particularly egregious example. Melanie Phillips, writing in the Daily Mail, described the riots in France as 'a French intifada, an uprising by French Muslims against the state'. I covered the intifada in Israel and Palestine and, beyond the fact that thrown stones look much the same wherever they are, saw little that resembled the Gaza Strip in the autumn of 2000 in Clichy-sous-Bois in the autumn of 2005. In the course of her article, Phillips spoke of how 'night after night, France [had] been under attack by its Muslim minority', how the country was being 'torched from Normandy to the Mediterranean', how it had 'sniffed the danger that had arisen in its midst' and quoted a little-known writer called Bat Ye'Or who is a favourite of the more unsavoury right-wing American websites and believes that the European Union is a conspiracy dedicated to creating one Muslim-dominated political entity that will comprise most of the Middle East and Europe.
"Phillips also conflated Arabs (a race), and Muslims (a global religion of 1.3 billion, some devout, some not). This is dangerous nonsense, but needs to be studied."
"Analysts and commentators often seek to find evidence to support their well-established ideas in any given event. So while critics of the 'French social model' have gleefully seen evidence of its failure in the recent violence in France, its supporters have seen evidence of the damage done by right-wing policies in the country. But little compares with the extraordinary way in which the disturbances of the last two weeks have been hijacked by those who appear set on either finding, or creating, a 'clash of civilisations' between Islam and the West.
"Take one particularly egregious example. Melanie Phillips, writing in the Daily Mail, described the riots in France as 'a French intifada, an uprising by French Muslims against the state'. I covered the intifada in Israel and Palestine and, beyond the fact that thrown stones look much the same wherever they are, saw little that resembled the Gaza Strip in the autumn of 2000 in Clichy-sous-Bois in the autumn of 2005. In the course of her article, Phillips spoke of how 'night after night, France [had] been under attack by its Muslim minority', how the country was being 'torched from Normandy to the Mediterranean', how it had 'sniffed the danger that had arisen in its midst' and quoted a little-known writer called Bat Ye'Or who is a favourite of the more unsavoury right-wing American websites and believes that the European Union is a conspiracy dedicated to creating one Muslim-dominated political entity that will comprise most of the Middle East and Europe.
"Phillips also conflated Arabs (a race), and Muslims (a global religion of 1.3 billion, some devout, some not). This is dangerous nonsense, but needs to be studied."
6 Comments:
Have a look at 60 Minutes tonight. If their story about the French riots is anything like their promos, you can't expect some pretty ridiculous claims.
The promo goes like this (paraphrased) "The French riots prove once and for all, Australians can't ignore muslim extremists".
The French riots were exactly like the MacQuarie Fields riots but on a much larger scale. The spark (police chasing people to their deaths), the demographics (young males), and the socio-economic factors (high unemployment/ghettos/limited prospects) are identical in both cases.
But notice how 60 minutes focusses on the religion (most probably totally lapsed)of the criminals involved, and draws a ridiculous link to international terrorism.
Anything for ratings.
Maybe someone should have written an article saying, "The Anglo MacQuarie Field riots prove once and for all that we can't ignore the Christian Fundamentalists in Washington" to prove how stupid 60 minutes have become.
One more thing. Check out my blog to see the latest effort from our home grown neo-Nazi movement.
Thanks, checked out the Neo-Nazis, sad cases.
As for 60 minutes and the usual media suspects, it's far too complex to actually examine why something is happening, so much easier to talk about radical Islam, the new bogeyman, akin to the 'threat' of Soviet Communism, another Western exaggeration.
It'll fool some...
And let's not forget, Ronnie Reagan ended Communism...and supported death squads in Latin America, but let's not focus on the negatives.
The French appear to be choosing sides for a game of bigot ball.
Well it just looks like thugs being thugs.
However its significant that young men in Australia of Lebanese ethnic origin enjoy a higher than usual crime rate (rapes etc) and they appear to form a majority of the suspected terrorists recently picked up here.
So it appears that generalisations can be drawn in the Lebanese case on basis of ethnic origin.
Islam itself is probably a secondary excuse. Seems the would-be terrorists do not appreciate Australia being part of the force occupying Iraq - an ethnic "Arab" country.
Mountains of evidence that proves the West exaggerated the threat is there to read. Not unlike the current terrorism 'threat'.
Perspective...and spare the hyperbole.
Communism no threat? Vastly exaggerated, much for political gain in the West.
Sound familiar?
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