World News: Muslims Torching Cars in France

 

For several years now, French media have been banning stories, videos, and photos of the annual New Year’s Eve car torchings by Muslims in the suburbs of Paris. Considering how upset Muslims are with President Emmanuel Macron due to his approval of the publishing of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed as expressions of free speech, there could be many more car arsons this year than in the recent past. If I can find the tally, I’ll let you know in a few days.

The Local Every New Year’s Eve nervous car owners across France cross their fingers in the hope they can start the New Year with their vehicle intact. That’s because of a longstanding French tradition that sees “youths” in certain parts of cities (Muslims from urban ghettos) torching scores of cars.

The number of vehicles set alight on the night of December 31st 2018 climbed to 1,031 compared to 935 the previous New Year’s Eve, while arrests rose from 456 to 510, the interior ministry said on Monday.

New Year’s Eve is the most popular occasions for Muslim car burnings, but closely behind are July and August, particularly on Bastille Day on July 14th when Muslim youths mark the annual fête nationale with their own firework shows.

Nevertheless stats released last year by France’s official crime data agency ONDRP reveal that the number of cars burned each year has fallen by 20 percent since 2010. That was the good news for car owners and insurance firms. The bad news is that tens of thousands of vehicles are still burned across the country.

The main reason for the fall according to the ONDRP is that the media take less interest now in the mass burning of cars, which means there may be less of a thrill for the arsonists.

Authorities have previously refrained from reporting on the number of torched cars on New Year’s Eve after it was discovered that a district-by-district breakdown was fuelling destructive competition between rival Muslim gangs.

Added to that is that extra police are regularly deployed in sensitive areas on specific nights of the year to try to prevent the blazes.

The stats also showed that the departments most affected by the phenomenon were Haute-Corse in Corsica, Isere to the south east which includes Grenoble, and Oise, to the north of Paris.

The car owners most affected are generally in the more hard-up neighborhoods.

The custom of setting vehicles alight on New Year’s Eve reportedly began in the east of the country, around Strasbourg, in the 1990s, in the the city’s poorer neighbourhoods. It was then quickly adopted by Muslim youths in cities across the country.

In 2017, French authorities were accused of a cover-up after claiming New Year’s Eve “went off without any major incident” despite more than 1,000 cars being torched in arson attacks.

Cars are often set ablaze whenever there is an outbreak of social disorder, as seen in the 2005 riots when hundreds of vehicles were torched. The ONDRP’s Christophe Schulz told Le Parisien newspaper that there are diverse reasons that Muslim youths burn cars.

“Vehicle fires are often associated with a context of riots and urban violence. It can also be a ‘game’ to break the monotony, or it could be motivated by vengeance after a violent arrest. Or it could just be to get rid of a car used in a crime or as an insurance scam.”

So while car owners might welcome the fall, they still face a few sleepless nights this summer and  of course, New Year’s Eve.