A very perceptive post at ShrinkWrapped explores the disturbing psychological roots of The French Intifada: A Second Look.

The most important of the several developmental steps that are required to move from late adolescence into early adulthood is the surrender of the adolescent fantasy of omnipotentiality (the idea that all future outcomes are available), which requires the acceptance of realistic limitations that are in concordance with one’s abilities, and the establishment and consolidation of a stable identity.   A stable adult identity includes such things as one’s sexual orientation, the desire or lack of desire for marriage and children, one’s occupational interests, ethnic identifications, and religious orientation.  In all these areas, the young residents of the banlieus of France are being channeled toward radical Islam.

The adolescent often takes on many trial identifications before settling on a stable adult identification.  Most often, the new adult has primary input from the parental identifications, with some idealized authority figures added into the mix.  This is one important reason so many children are like their parents.  For the young men in the banlieus, there are almost no French Muslims available for identification who have become successful Frenchmen and been successfully integrated into the overall French/European culture.  Their own fathers are often missing completely or are devalued objects of derision, not someone to be emulated.  Thugs and gang leaders run the ghettos and often have more authority than the government.  Notably, the only ones who can challenge the authority of the gangs are the local Imams, most of whom are adherents (often financially supported by Saudi money) of fundamentalist and radical Islam.  They alone exude a calm authority; they are men worthy of admiration and identification.