The rioting in France entered its third day last night, and events took an ominous turn. A French police official said that "genuine urban guerrillas with conventional weapons" were now involved. European news broadcasts available online show Muslim rioters firing shotguns at reporters and policemen. Over 100 police officers have been injured, at least thirty of them hit by buckshot. Six officers were in serious condition after being shot at close range, several of them in the face. Most media reports continue to describe the rioting thugs as "youth" or, in a few cases, as "Arab and black children."

But here is the reality that continues to be ignored. Many of the areas where rioting took place in 2005, and is taking place now, are considered "no go zones" by police, firemen and medical emergency vehicles because they are too dangerous. Whole neighborhoods are outside the control of French government authorities on a daily basis. These neighborhoods are often "ruled" by a bizarre combination of radical Muslims, drug gangs and petty criminals. These are the same criminals who have terrorized commuters in Paris, gang-raped French women and attacked French Jews.

France's new government, under the pro-American President Nicolas Sarkozy, is facing a key test of its ability to confront the growing threat to its nation.

The government of Sudan today charged British school teacher Gillian Gibbons with "insulting religion and inciting hatred" for allowing her students to name a class teddy bear "Muhammad." Gibbons was arrested on Sunday at Unity High School in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, after one of her student's parents complained to government authorities about the name. The charge was filed even though one of Gibbons' seven-year-old students told authorities that he chose the teddy bear's name after his own name and that most of the class agreed with his choice. A Sudanese government spokesman, however, called Gibbons' conduct "unacceptable," and she now faces six months in prison, a fine and up to 40 lashes under Sudan's Islamic law- based legal system. Islamic fundamentalists in Sudan are even calling for demonstrations after Friday prayers, when most followers of the faith in Sudan attend mosque and congregate together. It is not surprising that this story comes from Sudan, whose government is in the midst of a five- year-long campaign of genocide that has taken the lives of over 300,000 of its own people in Sudan's Darfur region.

Unfortunately, this type of distorted justice is far from uncommon in the Islamic world. Earlier this month a 19-year-old Muslim woman was sentenced to 90 lashings under Saudi Arabian law. What was her offense? The young woman had been beaten and gang-raped but was being punished for violating the country's laws on segregation because she had traveled to the location of the rape in a car with an unrelated man. Though seven men were convicted for the brutal rapes, their punishments ranged from a mere two to nine years in prison. Even worse, when the young victim appealed her ridiculous sentence, the court increased her punishment to 200 lashes and six-months in prison.

Not surprisingly, western liberals have been less than eager to discuss these cases. When asked to comment on the Gibbons case, a spokeswoman for the National Organization for Women (NOW) said the situation "is definitely on the radar, and NOW is not ignoring it." But the spokeswoman for NOW, whose mission statement is "to take action to bring about equality for all women," added that the group is "not putting out a statement or taking a position." Of course what more can we expect from a group that has refused to condemn gender selection abortion in China and the mistreatment of Muslim women in Afghanistan and Iran? The very same liberals who accuse religious conservatives in America of trying to impose a "theocracy" merely because we oppose abortion-on-demand and gay "marriage" become conspicuously quiet when genuine theocracies mete out their brutal and unjust punishments.