PARIS,
November 8, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – A prominent French
anti-globalization activist blamed the worsening urban unrest on
failed government's integration policies as well as the social and
economic marginalization of immigrants.
"Riots
have nothing to do with Muslims, Arabs or African immigrants as
propagated by the media," Jose Bove told IslamOnline.net Tuesday,
November 8.
"The
unrest has its roots in decade-old failed social policies to improve
the situation in France's poor suburbs."
The
government declared Tuesday a state of emergency in riot-hit parts in
order to combat the worst outbreak of urban unrest since the May 1968
student revolt.
Meeting
in crisis session under the chairmanship of President Jacques Chirac,
the cabinet invoked a 50 year-old law originally drawn up at the start
of the Algerian war which permits the declaration of curfews,
house-searches and a ban on public meetings.
The
measure will come into effect at midnight after the government has
issued a decree setting out the geographical limits for the state of
emergency.
Nearly
two weeks of rioting in the country's high-immigration suburbs has
left more than 6,000 cars burned, public and private property
destroyed, tens of policemen injured and one civilian death.
More
than 1,500 people -- mainly Arab and black youngsters -- have been
detained.
The
deaths 10 days ago of two youths fleeing police ignited pent up
frustrations among young men, many of them of North and black African
origin, at racism, unemployment, their marginal place in French
society and their treatment by the police.
Government
Blamed
Bove,
a farmer and unionist, blamed the unrest on social and economic
marginalization of the African and Muslim immigrants in the European
country.
"There
will be no solution to the crisis in the near future unless the
government changes its policies toward marginalized immigrants,"
he added.
The
activist urged the French parliament to debate the root causes of
crisis, describing the unrest as "a revolution by desperate
youths who have lost all hopes."
Muslim
thinker Tareq Ramadan blamed the entire political class in France for
the riots, saying the political class has been "blind" to
what has been happening in the suburbs, with their unemployed youth of
Arab and African origin and bleak high-rises.
Bove
also asked Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to apologize for his
anti-immigrant remarks.
The
interior minister has been under fire for his
"zero-tolerance" policy, which caused violence in the areas.
The
French Communist Party, the Greens and the Socialist Party have joined
forces, demanding the sacking of Sarkozy over his handling of the
crisis.
He
has been accused of stoking passions by calling troublemakers
"racaille" or rabble, and saying that crime-ridden areas
need to be "cleaned with a power-hose."
