According to this Reuters report, “rioters set fire to hundreds of vehicles in impoverished suburbs of northeastern Paris in an eighth night of unrest that spread for the first time to other parts of the capital and other towns in France.” Reuters continues:

…the rioting spread, with some attacks reported in western Paris suburbs — including the torching of 23 buses at a depot — and a few cars firebombed around Rouen in northern France, Dijon in the east and Marseille in the south.

The pattern of violence also changed, shifting from crowds clashing with police to targeted arson attacks, many against businesses and warehouses.

…

Officials in Seine Saint Denis said 187 vehicles had been destroyed there overnight. French media said up to 600 vehicles were destroyed in the whole greater Paris region, including 23 buses at a terminal in Trappes in the southwest near Versailles.

In addition to that, a 56-year old handicapped woman was doused with gasoline and set ablaze by Muslim youths. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said he believes the rioting “was not spontaneous, it was perfectly organized.” He said authorities did not know by whom.

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Mark Steyn on the French riots — I think that we can’t really call them the Paris riots any longer — and Steyn had this this to say:

I’m actually thinking of going to Paris. I went to one of these suburbs that’s currently ablaze three years ago. And what was interesting to me is I had to bribe a taxi driver a considerable amount of money just to take me out there. They’re miserable places. But what was interesting to me is that after that, I then flew on to the Middle East, and I was in Yemen, and a couple of other places. And what was interesting to me was that I found more menace in the suburbs of Paris than I did in some pretty scary places in the Middle East. I mean, there is a real…this, I think, is the start of a long Eurabian civil war we’re witnessing here.

…

They’re places where people who are not Muslim feel very ill at ease. They’re places where the writ of the French state does not run. The police don’t police there. They basically figure if you go there, you’re on your own. You’re taking your own chances there. I mean, I don’t think Americans understand quite the degree of alienation of some of these groups.

The school district serving my neighborhood has students coming from homes where 67 different languages are the primary language. Yet the Richardson School District is one of the finest in Texas. Within 5 miles of where we live, my wife and I can dine at Indian restaurants representing the north, the south, the northwest, and the southwest of India. You want Pakistani food? You’ll have to decide whether you want western Pakistani cuisine or eastern Pakistani cuisine. If you name an ethnic group, I can pretty much find you a community with its own restaurants and shops located just a few miles from where we live. Despite this, we have no racial tension at all.

So what has gone wrong with France?

The problem is that the French have never encouraged their immigrants to adopt the French culture and have instead pursued a policy of non-assimilation. Though born in France, the rioting youths are strangers in a strange land. In the United States — at least so far — we’ve resisted multiculturalism pressures and have encouraged immigrants to adopt American ways. The Vietnamese, Koreans, Chinese, Indians, and Pakistanis all have local pockets of their culture where they feel at home, but they otherwise live and work as Americans. By the time immigrant children here are 9 or 10, they have the same likes and dislikes and engage in the same activities as other American children. They may eat different foods at home but at school and play, they’re Americans.

Around 10 percent of France’s population are Muslims descended from northern Africans and they have no affinity at all with the country of their birth. It may be too late for France and they really may have to go through a civil war before they see peace. The only answer is to work at integrating these immigrants and children of immigrants into the French culture. Israel has residents from virtually every country in the world yet most consider themselves to be Jews regardless of whether they are actually religious. Israel devotes considerable resources to “Israelize” their Immigrants. France must do the same or perish.