FRENCH JEWISH INTELLECTUAL EXPLAINS PARIS INTIFADA

Comments by French Jewish thinker on recent Muslim riots stirring the pot

By Lauren Elkin

PARIS, Nov. 30 (JTA) — A prominent French Jewish intellectual has come under attack for criticizing the public reaction to recent Muslim riots as too sympathetic. Critics called Alain Finkielkraut racist for emphasizing the ethnicity and religion of the rioters in a Nov. 18 interview with Ha’aretz.

Finkielkraut, 56, was quoted as saying that “in France there are also other immigrants whose situation is difficult — Chinese, Vietnamese, Portuguese — and they’re not taking part in the riots. Therefore, it is clear that this is a revolt with an ethno-religious character.”

Contrary to the widespread opinion that the riots could not be “reduced to an unalloyed reaction to French racism,” Finkielkraut argued that they were attacks not against France “as a former colonial power” but “against France as a European country. Against France, with its Christian or Judeo-Christian tradition.”....

On Nov. 24, the Movement Against Racism filed charges of racism against Finkielkraut. Racism is a criminal offense in France. Finkielkraut apologized on the Europe 1 television station last Friday, saying his comments had been taken out of context. The Movement Against Racism then withdrew the charges, though Mouloud Aounit, the group’s secretary general, said he doubted the sincerity of Finkielkraut’s apology.