Paris Dispatch

Lost Causes Parisian correspondent JNM writes as follows regarding the barbaric murder of the Jewish Ilan Halimi by the African Muslim Youssouf Fofana:

Though I was bar-mitzvah'ed at thirteen I haven't really participated in many holidays or rites since then, so I can't really speak for the Jewish community as a whole. But as a human being I can pretty easily share in your disgust for the acts which saw a Jewish youth tortured and killed simply because he was Jewish. Though shocking, it is however old news. But that it happened at the hands of Arabs in Paris highlights one of the most pressing issues facing the French government: How to deal with the banlieu.

For those of you out of the Paris loop, the banlieu is essentially the immigrant and Arab-dominated suburbs forming a ring around Paris. Cheaper housing and manufacturing jobs are presumably what attracts them. For Paris through the ages, this trend is nothing new. The cycles of urban expansion fed by intense immigration have marked the Parisian landscape since before the Revolution. But what's alarming about developing trends is the inability to integrate today's banlieu with the customs and economy of the more inner city.

If you visit the banlieu you can immediately sense a deep and unsettling alienation amongst its inhabitants. PNCT can probably testify historically to what happens when indigent and alienated communities aren't given due attention and relief. The schools are terrible, the hospitals are overcrowded, the transportation is limited in correspondence, and the same apathy that plagues inner-city black youth in America attaches itself to Arab youth in Paris.

In this view it's not so surprising that a gang of kids abducted, tortured, and killed a 22-year-old Jew. They were acting on complete ignorance, and this much is obvious in the facts. Education is not just good for its own sake. It dissects, liberates, mollifies, and calls into question most prejudices about the way the world operates.

So this latest incident was as much a failure of Parisian administration and social absorption as it was of human dignity.