Anyone still wonder why the riots happened in France?

Hijab costs woman French residency

A Moroccan woman living legally in France for eight years has been refused a long-term residence card because she covers her hair with an Islamic head scarf, says her lawyer. El Khamsa has lived legally in France - where her four children were born - since 1997, employed by her husband's business. To replace her current residence card that must be renewed annually, she wanted a residency permit that is valid for 10 years, like the one accorded her husband.

But in a 2 November letter refusing her the 10-year card, Francois Praver, sub-prefect in the town of Raincy outside Paris, noted that during her interview, El Khamsa wore a head scarf "entirely covering your neck and the roots of your hair, comparable to a hijab, sign of belonging to a fundamentalist Islam".

As someone who loves Europe and works with the Middle East, I have taken a keen interest in the relationship between France and the Maghreb states, particularly Algeria. There is something barbarically romantic about the history of that relationship. The history only goes back to 1830, but it feels like forever. The discrimination goes back, too, and was not more evident than when Northern Algeria was declared part of France in 1879. Europeans living in Algeria could receive full citizenship, but Algerians could obtain this only after renouncing Islam. Algerians were considered French subjects but were not allowed to hold public meetings, carry weapons, or move around the country without permission.

The Algerian Revolution, as it should be called, was fought from 1954-1962, a bloody, heroic struggle against the idea of colonialism itself. One million Algerians and 100,000 Frenchmen are estimated to have been killed during these eight bloody years. In 1959, Charles De Gaulle, who had chosen Algiers as his seat of government while exiled during WWII, surprised the Europeans of Algeria by declaring that he would allow Algeria to chose between independence or continued association with France. This pissed off those who wanted Algeria to remain part of France, and for the next two years, unsuccessful revolts against de Gaulle were carried out by army generals. In 1961, 70% of Algerians and 76% of French voted for independence, and in 1962, 90% of the electorate voted to ratify the Evian agreement (I think of water, too), giving Algeria full independence. French nationalists, NOT Islamic fundamentalists, resorted to terrorist attacks as a result.

Unfortunately, French colonial rule had destroyed the stable and mature Muslim society that had been Algeria prior to France's subjugation. After independence, Algeria was ravaged by one of the bloodiest civil wars in the history of manevil.

It seems like the two countries are destined to be forever entwined. The struggle is not over, and as long as France continues to blatantly discriminate against Muslims, the violence is not going to go away. The relationship was born from violence, and it will live in violence for as long as oppression continues.