Why Is Paris Burning?
The high point of Pope Leo’s four-day visit to France was the celebration of Mass, on September 26, at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The crowd numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Some saw in this gathering a hopeful sign of a revival of interest in Christianity, particularly among young people.
At the same time, trouble was brewing. Over a week before, teachers at a secondary school in Paris went on strike over staffing shortages and building conditions. Students joined the teachers, setting up blockades with trash cans. Suburbs, including the majority-Muslim Saint-Denis neighborhood, joined in the blockades.
The protests turned violent on September 23. Firework mortars were fired into the school, causing injuries and leading to arrests. Soon, protests spread to other cities throughout France. Rioters engaged in vandalism and arson, throwing paving stones, bottles, and acid at police. The police responded with batons, tear gas, and more arrests. By early October, officials reported that 24 schools were “burned or ransacked.”
Then, on October 17—according to estimates from The French Interior Ministry—over half a million people participated in mass demonstrations across France. As the day wore on, those demonstrations also turned violent. Limoges city hall and the tourist office in Lyons were among the government buildings burned to the ground throughout the country. Police cars and private vehicles were torched, and there was widespread looting of supermarkets, electronic stores, luxury boutiques, and private homes. Nearly 1,000 police and firemen were injured, some seriously, and there were also injuries and one death among the rioters.
Copycat riots and looting broke out elsewhere in Europe, including in Milan, Bologna, Brussels, and Liège, Belgium. American media outlets initially portrayed the protestors as students and union workers. After October 17, the French government shifted the blame to “the ultra-Left.”
Conspicuously absent has been mention of immigrants or first- or second-generation French citizens from former French colonies, most of who are overwhelmingly Muslim. Videos show rioters waving Algerian and Palestinian flags, wearing keffiyehs, and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans. Synagogues were attacked, and Jewish businesses have been targeted. A Muslim student was caught on video calling his fellow students to kill the police in the name of Allah. So, although the government has blamed the far Left, Islam is playing a central role in the rioting.
Of course, the far Left and Islam are connected in encouraging the protests and justifying the violence. Immigrants from Muslim countries skew heavily toward the growing La France Insoumise, the radical-Left party that initially condemned the rioting and non-political vandalism of October 17 while blaming the violence on the government.
French conservative commentators and even some socialists refer to this as Islamo-gauchisme, or Islamic-leftism. The Left provides polemical language such as anti-racism, decolonization, and social justice, while Islamists provide a disciplined constituency and street mobilization, unified around the Palestinian cause. This can be seen in varying degrees throughout Europe.
The alliance is similar to the one that brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power in Iran in 1979, though immediately afterward, the Islamic regime arrested or executed their leftist supporters.
Of the many factors that have brought France to this terrible moment, one of the most important is the impact of secularism. When the role of religion in society is attacked, undermined, and replaced, people are left without a deeper purpose for life. Something that important can never be replaced with nothing.
France, Europe, and all Western Civilization are at a crossroads. Unless there is a recovery of transcendent meaning, only two choices are on the table. The Pope’s visit offered an outward expression of Christianity, tradition, and a reminder of the values that formed Europe in the first place. On the other hand, the alliance of radical leftism and Islamism will destroy a society, even if for conflicting reasons.
As Os Guinness and others described in the documentary Truth Rising, civilizations detached from what animated them must be renewed. Otherwise, they are destined for collapse.
Photo Credit: Gary M. Prior / Staff
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
