Interesting article about a developing situation in France. I can’t say that I saw much of this while there last month, but that’s not surprising as I was in the north primarily. My brother who lives there intimated that this might be an accurate forecast:

Mugged by la R√©alit√©: “FR D RIC ENCEL, PROFESSOR OF international relations at the prestigious Ecole Nationale d’Administration in Paris and a man not known for crying wolf, recently stated that France is becoming a new Lebanon. The implication, far-fetched though it may seem, was that civil upheaval might be no more than a few years off, sparked by growing ethnic and religious polarization. In recent weeks, a series of events has underlined this ominous trend.

On March 8, tens of thousands of high school students marched through central Paris to protest education reforms announced by the government. Repeatedly, peaceful demonstrators were attacked by bands of black and Arab youths–about 1,000 in all, according to police estimates. The eyewitness accounts of victims, teachers, and most interestingly the attackers themselves gathered by the left-wing daily Le Monde confirm the motivation: racism.”