Speaking of State Secrets

Very careful writing by Molly Moore in French Rioting Spreads as Government Seeks an Answer, about the seventh straight night of wild disorder in Muslim-dominated Paris suburbs:

PARIS, Nov. 3 -- Violence continued for a seventh night Wednesday in immigrant-dominated towns on the edge of Paris with gangs of youths taking over a police station, vandalizing a shopping center and setting fire to businesses, buses and cars as feuding French officials struggled to devise a plan for halting the unrest....

Who's rioting? Youths. Gangs. Gangs of youths. 

Moore points to high unemployment, crime, and "minimal social services" in communites where rioting is "contagious." Yes. But I don't have to tell you what's missing from this picture.  The lack of assimilation of Muslim communities in the West is one of the time bombs of our generation, but the religious and cultural identity of the rioters appears only twice in this story, either to portray Muslims as victims, or as the calming voice of reason.

In the third graf:

Chirac has not personally addressed the French public about the unrest that erupted last Thursday night when two Muslim teenagers of African heritage were electrocuted in a power substation while dodging a police checkpoint in the impoverished town of Chichy-sous-Bois northeast of Paris.

And this gloriously detached language in the penultimate graf:

Many of the residents of the northern suburban areas where the violence has been most intense are Muslim. The street fighting threatened to take on religious overtones Sunday when a police tear gas canister was thrown inside a mosque where about 700 worshipers were taking part in prayers. Local Islamic leaders said they have attempted to persuade local youths -- particularly Muslims -- to refrain from violence.

Oh yes, many residents where violence in some kind of disembodied way has been most intense are Muslim. Just standing there, watchin' the world go by. The conclusion is almost too perfect: The riots take on religious overtones only when police shoot tear gas into a mosque. Islamic leaders tell local youths, particularly Muslims, to refrain from violence. Which is odd considering local Muslim youths are never portrayed in this story as being violent. Must be a precautionary measure.

Update: Washington DC-area readers can watch French television news every night at 7 p.m. on WNVC, a public television station marketed as MHz and carried on many local systems (I imagine mainly on the Virginia side) and over the air on, I believe, UHF channel 56. The half-hour program is in French with English subtitles.

Comments

[David Gerstman]

She perfected that detachment when she was stationed with her husband John Ward Anderson in Israel. Media Backspin and I have had several critiques of her style. (As well as her choice of sources.)