it's funny how some members of the right have started referring to the riots in france as an "intifada". i guess some people think that muslim + riots = "intifada."
this last week has also seen riots in argentina, ethiopia, kenya, and tanzania. and none of them got the "intifada" label except for the ones in france. for example, compare the hits from this search to this and this and this and this. (apparently they haven't notice what region the tanzania riots took place in yet).
the word intifada (انتفاضة) comes from the root nafaDa (نفض) which means "to shake" or "to shake off." intifada is a form of the root verb which means "doing [the root] to one's self" (what is called "form VIII" or "افتعل"). so a more literal translation of "intifada" would be "shaking off from one's self." note that the term by itself doesn't specify what is being shaken off. this ambiguity allows it to be interpreted two different ways. what was being "shaken off from one's self" could be seen as the internal "shaking off" of the mental attitudes of the average palestinians who tacitly accepted the reality of israeli dominance in their daily lives. it could also be interpreted to refer to the palestinian people as a whole shaking off the external domination by israel. the double meaning of the term worked as both a call to action (a political awakening) in the present, and the promise of success (an end of external political dominance) in the future.
so to get to my longwinded point (or rather, "points"), what i'm saying is that: (1) the term "intifada" has nothing to do with being muslim and (2) that translating the term as "uprising" is not really that accurate. translating it as "awakening" would probably be closer to what it really means. at least it captures one-half of the double-meaning of the term.
do the people who are calling the riots in france an "intifada" want to call it an "awakening"? somehow i doubt it. but i think that's a more accurate picture of what is going on there. muslim youths who have lived their entire lives in france are awakening to their marginalization in french society. that's not to excuse what they're doing. the rioting is probably doing more to destroy the homes and businesses of their own community. the images of burning cars will also allow members the french public to further demonize the immigrant communities in france. my point isn't that the rioters are doing good, but rather that what they're doing has more to do with watts in 1965 than jabalia in 1987.
