Daniel Pipes, a Middle East scholar prone to lambasting Edward Said, says that the French media is ignoring the obvious: that radical Islamism is behind the riots in France.
I don’t read French so I can’t check all his links. The theory fits in nicely with many people’s worldview (including, I suppose, Pipes’s), but is [...]

Apparently the rioters in France are about to form a union and will soon be limited to wreaking mayhem 32 hours per week.

Below, David asked about Bloggers who contributed to our common attempts to understand what is happening in France, and possibly elsewhere in Europe, and why it is happening. But it seems, some Bloggers have been contributing a little too much: No pasaran! and Loic LeMeur link to a Reuters report (in French) stating that three [...]

Well, I don’t read or speak French, have probably spent less than 30 days in France in my entire life, and I don’t tend to follow French politics much. But what the heck, here I go.
Of leading French politicians, it seems Nicolas Sarkozy has actually made one of the stronger efforts to reach out [...]

We would like to be the go-to blog for all things European and political, but we’re obviously not quite there yet (to my great annoyance). There’s little point in commenting if you can’t add anything to what the mainstream media is already offering, and we don’t necessarily have any special expertise or insight here. We [...]

From a July profile on Nicolas Sarkozy in Foreign Policy:
Stéphane Rozès of the polling institute CSA compares Sarkozy to Napoleon during the famous Arcole bridge battle, in which Napoleon charged ahead urging his soldiers to trust him despite not knowing what was on the other side. “Sarkozy charges ahead, begs his supporters to follow him [...]

Parts of Paris are burning. Have been for seven nights in a row. This would seem to indicate a problem, and not a small one.

Following-up on my extensive post last week, some more evidence of the ongoing ‘reappraisal’ of the positive growth consequences of immigration that is taking place among economists: Immigration, Jobs and Wages Theory, Evidence and Opinion by Christian Dustmann and Albrecht Glitz.

Read more… or [...]

Christmas time is traditionally a period of religious tension and social stress, and the first Christmas since the advent of “laïcité républicaine” has not spared France. Last month, students in Lagny-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne, e.g. outer Paris) had to give up their Christmas tree after a group of students (from what I’ve read, the principle won’t [...]

Despite having turned Amsterdam’s red light district into some kind of adult entertainment Disneyland, and despite having instituted one of the world’s most relaxed drug policy regimes, the Netherlands were not always home to deep rooted respect of alternative lifestyles.

Read more… or Read [...]