Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/07/14/many-dead-after-truck-cras.html
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Gunfire was exchanged with the local police. My positive thoughts are with the victims and their families.
Vive La France
image is from the AP
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Relayed by The Guardian:
Reuters now reports that a French official has told local media that at least 30 people are dead and 100 injured. The driver is also dead, the local prefect reportedly said.
The Nice prosecutor’s office is being quoted by the i-Télé TV channel that 60 people are now feared dead.
Charlie Hebdo, Paris, and now Nice. Why is this happening? Why France?
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my best guess is that because france has a fairly large islamic community and has had one for 50+ years isil and individuals inspired by isil want to create hostility between france and the islamic community so as to create a pool of resentment which it can use to recruit from. if the response by the government is ham-fisted enough it can work.
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Laicism could be playing a role, too - religious groups are not really seen as part of the society.
combine this with the preference for christianity mostly propagated by conservative/right parties and you get a whole subculture of isolated people seeing the state as opponent
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another big boost for donald from those who want it to be about “radical islamic terrorism”, a clash of islam against the infidel west, and in my mind a sure sign that ISIS in losing its “state” is becoming desperate and reckless in its attacks.
sure tere are more coming as sure as donald is the wrong leader to deal with it.
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Why anywhere? What kind of mind permits someone to so pointlessly murder the unsuspecting innocents who are simply trying to enjoy their lives? Nothing, no religion, belief system, just nothing. For anyone, anywhere to foment such evil defies belief. Such a person who does encourage this should also be humanely removed from circulation.
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I am trying to think of a worse year than 2016, and I got nothing.
2017, please be gentle.
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Roger That!
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French Islamophobia is part and parcel of this, too. There have long been problems with immigrants from former French colonies being subjected to racism in France, as well.
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“Why France?” Why the world?
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The main assertion conveyed in the international press is that France has made little progress in assimilating Muslims them into their culture. I suppose domestic Islamophobia doesn’t help. I still can’t understand why the French seem to have suffered more attacks than any other European nation. Perhaps my knowledge of terrorist attacks is skewed by recency bias.
I suppose the most sane response to my original question is, as both @iquitos46 and @Engineer666 have said, ‘Why anywhere?’.
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James Baldwin’s This Morning, This Evening, So Soon always comes immediately to my mind. French is my third best language and I’ve been getting better at it, but even as an Atheist I wouldn’t dream of living in France as an Arab guy.
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I think assimilation has much to do with it. The Algerian war did not help. None of this is disconnected from a longer history of colonialism and post-colonialism.
Why anywhere is also, in part, answered by colonialism/post-colonialism. But I don’t want to suggest it’s an issue of “blame the west” only, as if Arabs have had no agency. Obviously domestic mid East politics play a role in this. The failures of Pan Arabism haven’t help, and the Cold War just continued to exacerbate animosity towards western powers, including France, who, after us, have their hands pretty deep into the region.
There are entire fields aimed at trying to pin down the answer to this question, though. But I don’t think we can have a full answer unless you include the past.
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I haven’t read that one… I will do so!
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“Almost exactly 8 months ago”
Huh?
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The sad thing is we were so relieved to be done with 2015, at the time one of the worst years we’d had.
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So, have they caught the driver?
If by caught you mean neutralized, then yes.
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I’m glad he didn’t get away, but it would have been good to have him answer a few questions.
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