There could be no better proof that the French model of integration works, a member of that nation’s exhalted elite was heard to say as France’s banlieues burned. A tradition of violent protest is embedded in the DNA of the fifth republic. The ethnic Arabs and Africans prominent in nightly urban riots were thus showing themselves to be indisputably French.

Sardonic intent apart, this judgment touched a truth. The suburban uprisings may have badly shaken an already feeble Paris government, but they will not persuade France to abandon its policy of assimilation. If taking to the streets is part of the national political culture, there is a still stronger conviction that the republic must remain blind to religion and ethnicity. There is no place for ethnic communities to mediate between citizen and state.