France: A Revolt against Europe's Elites?

For years, those of us who write and worry about the rise of Islam in Western Europe have known that eventually, if the governments of these countries did not change course dramatically, something had to give. So far, the natives had, for the most part, been remarkably tame. They had swallowed a lot. Their leaders had filled their countries with huge numbers of immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa, a disproportionate number of whom were making it clear that they had no intention of fully joining or contributing to their host societies but, rather, were content to take, to harm, to damage, and to destroy, and were determined, in the long run, to conquer and rule. No one had ever asked the citizens of Western Europe whether they wanted their countries radically transformed in this manner. This transformation, moreover, was intensifying by the year. At some point, surely, the native peoples of Western Europe would react…
The most important news on this front, however, has not been at the ballot box. This year Brits expressed growing outrage over Theresa May’s bungled Brexit and, during the summer, took to the streets to protest the illegitimate incarceration of Tommy Robinson, who in that country had become the very face of resistance to Islamization. Furthermore, in recent weeks, citizens of France from across the political spectrum, and mostly hailing from small towns and rural areas, have been engaged not just in standard-issue public protests — that perennial Gallic recreational activity — but have been rioting and committing acts of vandalism in Paris and other major cities, despoiling iconic locations such as the Champs-Elysées, forcing the Eiffel Tower and Louvre to close, and even causing damage to the Arc de Triomphe…Journalists have had trouble getting clear and concise explanations from the rioters of their motives and goals. Perhaps the rioters cannot find the words — perhaps they are expressing a rage that they have yet to be able to articulate. Or perhaps they are reluctant to speak their minds out loud for fear of being called xenophobes, Islamophobes, or racists…Now the riots have spread to Belgium and the Netherlands. There, too, the rioters’ goals can be elusive…
Will these riots spread even further? Somehow it is hard to picture ordinary Scandinavians rioting — they are just too low-key. Their idea of public demonstration is a quiet candlelight vigil. As for Germans, they are too orderly to erupt in spontaneous uprisings. Yes, they are good at marching in lockstep to the orders of some hysterical fascist maniac, but they are not individually inclined to break into violence. Then again, that impression may be wrong. After all, it was quite a surprise to see so many ordinarily polite, even repressed, Britons piling into London squares to voice their solidarity with Tommy Robinson. So maybe these French riots will spread across Western Europe. Maybe this is it — the start of the Western European public’s pushback against the elites’ disastrous multicultural and globalist project. Or maybe it is just one more step that is bringing us closer to the continent’s day of reckoning. We shall find out soon enough (by gatestoneinstitute.org).