France Tightens The Screws

The Muslim riots in France and the al Qaeda connection to its mosques is making France behave in ways that are very sensitive.

First the al Qaeda/mosque connection, thanks to Sheeps Crib:

France's internal intelligence agencies reported in the last two years that 40 percent of the imams in France's 1,000 principal mosques had no religious training and downloaded material from pro-al Qaeda Web sites for their Friday sermons. The fiery harangues were designed to attract young jobless Muslims to the mosques -- and extremist causes many imams espoused.

And more evidence for those of us who believe there's more than economic depravation behind the French riots, also from Sheeps Crib:

Satellite dishes protrude from almost all apartments in the cankerous Muslim housing projects. The Qatar-based Al Jazeera reaches 'hoods in Europe's Muslim and sub-Saharan African suburbs. For the last two years youngsters have been proselytized via the Internet to become jihadis for the Iraqi insurgency. They use the Internet to locate mosques in Syria and Jordan where they can find shelter on the way to Iraq, as well as places to report for training and combat assignments.

Much as the authorities try to avoid lending credibility to Islamist influences, the cops on the beat say Islamist beliefs coupled with desperation over a hopeless future are a major motivating factor. The young Muslims scoff at their parents for accepting menial jobs and belong to criminal gangs with a religious identity to feed their drug habits and steal mobile phones. And since Oct. 27, they tell each other their 'hoods are Baghdad in France.

Now, does this (from BBC) sound like the reaction of a country that thinks the riots were just about economic depravation?

France's lawmakers have voted to accept anti-terror measures which would boost video surveillance in public places. The bill will allow cameras to be used on public transport and in places of worship, shops and other public areas.

The house will take a final vote on the whole bill on Tuesday. The upper house will discuss it in January.

Mr Sarkozy told parliament the country should brace itself for a terror attack.

"We are not in the least protected from this war because its instigators are unpredictable," the interior minister said. "The possibility of violent acts being committed on our soil is a real one."

The government is taking this action in the face of civil rights advocates who are howling loudly -- but the bill is likely to pass because French electeds found something resembling a spine during the riots.

It's nice to see France beginning to get back on board in the GWOT, even if they no doubt will fo about it in their own strange way.