This piece by Doug Ireland is just about the best thing I've read about recent events in France. He's rightly dismissive of the suggestion -in some cases put about by people who should know better, and who evidently know nothing of the geographical, economic and racial arrangements of most large French cities- that the unrest is being fomented by Islamists. A friend emailing from Paris identifies the real problem very succinctly: "we've known for years that deliberately low ethnic social mobility is the most conspicuous problem in France." (Interestingly, the same friend registers one gripe about Ireland's piece and that concerns the gravity of Nicolas Sarkozy's use of the term racaille to describe the rioters; the "jury's still out", says my friend, on just how provocative that was and whether the translation favoured by most Anglophone news outlets -"scum"- is the most felicitous.)
Clive Davis has also been offering a consistent antidote to the "jihadi" reading of events this past week. His latest roundup of opinion from France and the US is well worth a look.
UPDATE: I should also have mentioned Sohie Masson's piece at Normblog, which makes a number of similar points.
