French Intifada, Day 16

Fri, Nov 11, 2005 at 5:27:38 pm PST

As the French intifada enters its 16th night, Some in France Ask: Where Are the Parents? (Hat tip: Jeremy.)

And the AP provides an easy answer. The parents are afraid of disciplining their little monsters.

Many parents are struggling to make ends meet, leaving them little time for their children. They often can hardly communicate with their sons and daughters: Many parents are not French citizens and never learn to speak French, while their children don’t learn the language of their ancestors.

Some parents even blame the recent riots on a French law that prohibits them from hitting their kids, which they say renders them powerless to assert control. The government wants parents to be more responsible. But aid groups wonder if parents even know what their children are up to. ...

“France is a democratic country. It gives rights to women and children,” said Abderrahman Bouhout, director of the Bilal Mosque in Clichy-Sous-Bois. “Now parents cannot do anything — if they hit their 12-year-old, police will come to their door. There’s a hot line the kids can call to report parental abuse.”

Children have “too much freedom,” complained Abdelhalim Salah, 68, arguing that government policy has undermined parents.

Some of these parents seem to believe the problem could be solved if only Islam played an even larger role in their children’s lives:

Sabrine, a 41-year-old mother of four who came from Tunisia 20 years ago, said police shouldn’t blame parents for failing to stop the trouble.

“We cannot bring up our kids the way we want, to teach them Islam,” said Sabrine, adding that France encourages children to choose how they want to practice religion.

“They say religion is not obligatory or that parents are not allowed to make their children wear the hijab (veil) or to pray,” she said. “They want to give our children the same freedoms they give to the French.”

And in case you missed the point, AP writer Scheherezade Faramarzi throws in a completely gratuitous reference to Israel:

Parallels may be drawn between the immigrant children of France and Palestinian youth revolting against Israeli occupation.

And who exactly is drawing those parallels? Why, that would be Scheherezade Faramarzi, of course.