France Is Not (Yet) Morocco or Algeria
In France, 'a Bomb Waiting for the Match'
Immigrant, Minority Youths in Streets a 3rd Night Near Paris; Violence Spreads South
Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, November 28, 2007; Page A17
VILLIERS-LE-BEL, France, Nov. 27 -- On the morning after a mob of angry youths torched the library in this small, immigrant-heavy town north of Paris during a second night of rioting, a group of local leaders stood outside the charred remains Tuesday and tried to make sense of what they saw.
"This was a symbol -- it's the Republic, the state, and so they threw molotov cocktails at city hall" and other government buildings, said Raymonde Le Texier, a Socialist senator who was mayor of Villiers-le-Bel for a decade. "People feel forgotten by the government powers, and it's the truth -- they have been forgotten by those in power."
. . . Two years ago, more than 8,000 cars were burned and 2,900 people arrested in three weeks of rioting that started after two minority teenager…