In Germany, a cautious sense that 'we don't have to fear this' (Riots)

[skooooo]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/07/news/react.php

BERLIN Cars were set on fire in Berlin, in the German city of Bremen and in Brussels in what appeared to be copies of the communal riots in France, and European leaders warned that poor and dissatisfied youths of immigrant backgrounds lived all over Europe.

The incidents late Sunday night, though minor so far, served as a reminder to many Europeans of the absence of any guarantee that the violence sweeping France could not spread to other countries in Europe that also have large, relatively poor and culturally alienated ethnic communities, most of them predominantly Muslim.

And, to be sure, there already has been intense communal violence elsewhere in Europe, if nothing quite like the French disturbances, most notably the fighting between Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigrants and the police in several towns in northern England a few summers ago.

And yet, as officials and community leaders watched the violence in France on television, there seemed to be at least a cautious and tentative conviction that the chance was small that riots on the scale of those in the Paris suburbs would break out in other countries.

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1. Riots rarely bring progressive change

I hope the defenders of the rioters realize that. This whole episode will only embolden the zenophobes in France, and throughout Europe.

[olddad56]

2. I would agree...

Vioence obscures the message. The violent protesters become the villains and stopping the violence becomes the primary objective of the government. Dr. Martin Luther King and the people of the civil rights movement were successful because of their committment to non violence, and non violent forms of protest. And I would argue that this country so much better because of the gains made by these incredibly courageous people.