Paris Burning: How Empires End
November 07, 2005 10:54 PM EST

The Romans conquered the barbarians -- and the barbarians conquered Rome. So it goes with empires. And comes now the final chapter in the history of the empires of the West.

This is the larger meaning of the ritual murder of Theo van Gogh in Holland, the subway bombings in London, the train bombings in Madrid and the Paris riots spreading across France. The perpetrators of these crimes in the capitals of Europe are the children of immigrants who were once the colonial subjects of the European empires.

At this writing, the riots are entering their 12th night and have spread to Rouen, Lille, Marseille, Toulouse, Dijon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Cannes and Nice. Thousands of cars and buses have been torched, and several nursery schools firebombed. One fleeing and terrified woman was doused with gasoline and set ablaze. French police are now being shot at and wounded.
Commentary


Unrest spreads from Paris to the provinces
Nov 7th 2005
From The Economist Global Agenda

Rioting that began almost two weeks ago in run-down suburbs of Paris intensified and spread to other French cities at the weekend. The unrest, led by the disaffected children of immigrants, could be the biggest challenge to the government's authority since the student riots of the 1960s.

WHEN riots erupt in one of the biggest countries of the supposedly super-stable European Union (EU), it can be embarrassing for the government concerned. When those riots go on night after night for the best part of two weeks, only to continue getting worse, it starts to become truly alarming. On Sunday November 6th, the eleventh night in a row of unrest in France, the violence intensified and spread to new areas, despite promises from the country’s president and prime minister to stamp it out. What started with a few disaffected, mostly Muslim youths throwing rocks and burning cars on the outskirts of Paris is fast turning into a national crisis.
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French intifada targets churches
Posted: November 8, 20051:00 a.m. Eastern

The definitive French newspaper, Le Monde, reported deep in its headline Nov. 7 story that for the first time French street terrorists have turned their "colere" (anger) on "eglises" (churches). Overnight, they attacked one church in the town of Sete in the south of France, and another in the town of Lens in the north.

In Arabic, "intifadňa" means "shudder, awakening, uprising." A mounting, 11-day long attack on policemen, institutions of state, and now Christian churches by bands of angry, Arabic-speaking youth would seem at least as worthy of that term in Paris as it is in Jerusalem.

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