Europe is burning (UPDATE)

Update: In a mirror image of what is happening in France, Belgium's government is coming in for attacks from far right anti-immigration parties as arson attacks against cars spread to Mechelen and Ledeberg. In addition, there were more reports of arson attacks in Brussels, Antwerp, and Lokeren. Interior Minister Patrick Dewael, unlike French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, has confronted the violence with stepped up police patrols but no vitriolic statements aimed at the youth. But Dewael admitted that in Belgium, as in France, there were signs that the attacks were coordinated and were being stirred up via the Internet. Also, for the first time, arson attacks were reported in another anti-Iraq war nation, Portugal and in other cities in Germany. Cars were torched in Lisbon and there were arson attacks in a number of districts in Berlin, as well as in Cologne, Altenburg, and Chemnitz. In Portugal, the violence did not involve Arabs or Muslims, but immigrants from former Portuguese colonies in Africa. Also, arson attacks in France neared the Swiss border for the first time. Buses were fire bombed in Dole in eastern Jura, very close to the Swiss canton of the same name -- Jura.

UPDATE Nov. 11, 2005 --- A source has pointed out that Chemnitz and Altenburg are in eastern Germany and are virtually free of foreigners. The "streets" in both towns are under the control of neo-Nazi gangs so it is likely the arson attacks in both cities have been carried out by provocateurs -- either Nazis acting on their own or working for "outside interests." The largest neo-Nazi party in Germany, the National Democratic Party (NPD), has links to Islamist radical and "anarchist" groups.