French Islamists, the winners of the riots
By Olivier Guitta
I just finished an article re the real implications of the French Islamists in the latest wave of violence in French suburbs.
Here is an excerpt:
In fact, the French suburbs where radical Islam is most entrenched have been quiet. As terrorism expert Alain Bauer wisely observed: "The radical Islamists would rather see the return of calm so they can act quietly."
Most radical Islamist Web sites I've browsed are calling on rioters to put down their rocks and molotov cocktails. One exhorts Muslims "not to give ammunition to the Zionist Nicolas Sarkozy scum who has now shown his real face as an Israeli terrorist" -- a reference to the country's hardline Interior Minister.
Obviously, Islamists are not calling for calm out of sheer kindness. Their true motive is that they wish to become indispensable actors on the national political stage. They want to be viewed as an intermediary between the French state and the young Muslims of the banlieues or, ideally, all Muslims.
This is the same strategy that has long been embraced by the Union des Organisations Islamiques de France (UOIF), an offshoot of the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, and the second largest Muslim organization in France. Like other Islamist groups, the UOIF has been hard at work in France's Arab suburbs since the mid-1990's, radicalizing young Muslims and spreading the message that Islamic values are incompatible with a secular, multicultural society.