July 3, 2023
Are France's Muslim migrant rioters engaged in Jihad?
By
Monica Showalter
Jihad seems so passe in the wake of Joe Biden's disastrous Afghanistan pullout, which not only took U.S. forces out of the region, but seems to have emboldened Russia and China a consequence.
But to paraphrase the famous saying, it also may be that we are not interested in Jihad, but Jihad is still interested in us.
The example of France with its mass rioting, which has since spread to Belgium and Switzerland, gives one pause.
What do we know about the rioters?
Well, they are deracinated youth from the French underclass, Muslim migrants and the children of Muslim migrants who live in the bleak, ugly banlieue suburbs of Paris where a generous welfare system ensures they don't need and don't want jobs, which for many leaves them without purpose, too. Hatred for France, resistance to assimilation, and their own criminal activity pretty well keeps them in the underclass. They've rioted before in 2005 over claims of racial discrimination, and they will probably riot again. France has no idea what to do about them except coddle them more. France's president is no longer mentioning that they even are migrants, let alone Muslims.
But the role of Jihad from abroad shouldn't be dismissed either, given that France has seen considerable new immigration from Jihad-infested countries.
According to INSEE, the French statistical institute, migration to France from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan African countries
is up since the end of the COVID pandemic lockdowns. (The Wikipedia page on immigration to France is
outdated). African immigrants, according to its
bar chart, constitute 47.5% of all immigrants in France as of 2021, the last date for which data are available, and form the largest group of immigrants. In what may be a sub-category of that, 29.3% are from the Mahgreb, the Muslim north African states that had been French colonies, such as Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. France, a nation of xx people, has about 7 million immigrants from all countries, including 2.5 million naturalized immigrants, 4.5 million migrants, and 0.8 million non-immigrant foreign nationals, or expats.