"The young are not rioting because they are immigrants, or because of Palestine, the war on Iraq or even Islam."

"They say we are trying to build an ‘alternative France’, and the banlieues have become hotbeds of Islamic radicalism,” he said.

"They say the Arab youth are under the control of ‘foreign forces’. Their logic runs: ‘Islam means terrorism, so all Muslims are terrorists.’

"The young are not rioting because they are immigrants, or because of Palestine, the war on Iraq or even Islam. They are rioting because they are French.

"Their parents may have been immigrants who came to live in a new country.

"They expected little and received even less. But this generation were born here and went to school here. French is their mother tongue.

"They are angry because even though they are French, they are treated as second class citizens."

Socialist Worker has more.