Finally got to read my copy and really pleased I did. Most of the book is a succinct history of France's bloody colonisation of North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria mainly).
The urban "hotspots" for tension and bouts of rioting known as the banlieues. The author has a key passage explaining why:There is a lot of anger and a lot of young men willing to turn themselves into Soldiers for God. Most importantly, the rioters, wreckers, even the killers of the banlieues are not looking for reform or revolution. They are looking for revenge.
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