The Uses of France’s Riots  The French riots of late October and
November were immediately pressed into service for ideological
heavy lifting to serve several causes.  First, the “Clash of
Civilizations” crowd immediately wished to place the riots in
the context of a neoconservative crusade of Western civilization
versus Islamic fundamentalism.  Of course, the fact that the
rioters took their queue from American rappers and usually only
spoke French gave them no pause.  Having spent about as much
time abroad as George Bush before he became President, these
“observers” from the American side of the Atlantic immediately
inveighed against another attack against Western civilization
from Islam.  For them, the call was bellowed out to pull up the
gates to the citadel and lock out the new Ottomans.  Those who
thought the source of the present difficulties was rooted
outside Islam were declared naÃ¯ve.  The frictionless discourse
on Islamic fundamentalism showed no sign of being slowed by
facts and attempts to eleva