Frustrations In The Muslim World Lead To Paris Riots

Many young men in the Muslim community in Paris as in much of the world find day to day find life very frustrating. In Paris, for example unemployment may range from 30-40% in neighborhoods. And like many of the nations in Europe, such as Belguim, the population of Muslims is rapidly growing. This has created a state of frustration between the governments and young Muslim men who are feel persecuted by the government, angry at joblessness, and sometimes in a state of unhapinessness at the morality of societies like France that run contrary to their faith values.

The world of many Muslim terrorists in the MidEast is similar as well. Muslim society is often very conservative, in fact overly so, where in some nations women are heavily covered by heavy clothing mandated by Muslim religious law, and sometimes the interaction and sexual availability of women is so limited to young muslim men that the sexual enticements of the rewards of many virgins to a suicide bomber who live in a frustrated sense because of poverty and lack of sexual fulfillment leads to violence.

But sometimes there are strange contradictions to this. While part of the anger against America that fueled the 9/11 attackers was a reaction against American society that is viewed as corrupt and immoral in much of the Muslim world, several of the 9/11 attackers actually spent the evening before the atttack in a Hollywood, Florida strip club. The attackers had a history of alcohol use while in America according to 9/11 reports to the Federal Government, as well as histories of gambling and frequenting of prostitutes. All of this is incontrast to the expected conservative values of the Muslim faith that the 9/11 attackers supposedly held close.

Most in Muslim world are good persons in which their faith elevates their entire life and promotes an alcohol free life based on good moral values. But as in every world community a number of alienated young men are prone to violence. This tendency towards violence manifests itself in frustrations in the Paris rioting and in the insurgent actions in Iraq to rid the region of the hated American influence are all signs of this.

Just like in the Christian or Jewish communities where religious leaders offer spiritual outreaches and counseling to their members, this might require that some Muslim religious leaders make a stronger spiritual outreach to members of their faith who feel alienated, especialy young men who fell that they have little to live or hope for.

I have both Muslim and Jewish friends. And I deeply like members of both religious groupings. I like many of Muslim men I know. They are friendly, decent and honest men whose faith have shaped their sense of values. They seem to be able to coexist in the Western world and are able to balance the values of the two communities and still remain true to their Muslim values. Every person's walk with God will face daily challenges. All religious communitie's young people feel these pressures. But in Paris and in Iraq, these pressures seem to have boiled over. Religious leaders need to be a front line in promoting the betterment of their communitie's as well as peace in their communitie's. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King proved the power to elevate the concerns of the Black community and enact constructive change. This last week's look back at the life of Rosa Parks highlighted this. What are needed are more figures like this to elevate the concerns of various communities to the frustrated concerns of some of the young. This isn't the answer to all violence. In Paris, better understanding by government officials of the poverty and joblessness situation are neeeded as well. Violence caused by joblessness and lack of respect fueled race riots in 1960's America. Paris is suffering a similar growing pain with the growing ethnic Muslim community there. All Western societies should seriously consider goals to work towards full employment economies as well.