Last week, saw another battle in the near-civil war that is going on between French police and so-called immigrant "youths" who burned everything in sight, including schools, libraries and, of course, automobiles. These rioters must be aiming for a new record in 2007 after having set fire to 45,588 cars in 2005 and 44,157 in 2006.

Low-intensity conflict in the streets, with rioters shooting at policemen and members of the fire brigade as in France, is probably one definition of multicultural utopia. Ever since the Berlin Wall came down, most of those on the left have forsaken communism in favor of another social dream: the multicultural society. Communism was "the god that failed," as Koestler called it, but Multiculti will bring us heaven on earth.

Of all the countries in Europe, France has invested the most in this ideal. One of the most shocking aspects of French policy, at least to Christians, is that it is forbidden for the French state to support Christianity or churches financially. But at the same time various municipalities in the Paris region have been heavily subsidizing the construction of mosques. In fact, I have had it on good authority that France has paid for making Dakar, Senegal, the center of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's activities for 2007 after the Senegalese government had spent the original budget provided by Arab countries on more necessary consumables!

Not only is religion actively being promoted by the government, but a high percentage of France's 10 to 15 million immigrants from North and West Africa actually live in some form of government housing referred to as HLMs. They also receive all sorts of welfare-state goodies such as free medical care and education, cash allowances for having children and so on. Given this welcome mat laid out in crisp new euro notes, one would think the average Muslim would be wearing a permanent smile of gratitude while singing the French national anthem, the Marseillaise, all day long.

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To the surprise of the French authorities, exactly the opposite has happened. At recent soccer matches the Marseillaise has actually been booed by immigrants, notwithstanding the regular outbreaks of riots in the banlieues.

Last week's riots started in the Parisian suburb of Villiers-le-Bel when two immigrant youths on a motorbike crashed into a police car. The accident set of a chain of violence, leaving 100 policemen wounded. A crude explosive device made up of a gas cylinder with nails taped to it was also discovered in a trashcan. In the bland language of a police statement, "The rioters have turned away from material to human targets."

A famous Frenchman, Auguste Comte, once said: "Demography is destiny." To grasp what is happening in France now, one must understand the country's demographics. The indigenous French population is aging while the immigrant population is a lot younger. Officially, there are 4.9 million foreign-born immigrants living in France, with another 6.7 million who possess the French nationality but "with foreign origins." Add these two numbers together and one arrives at a figure of 11.2 million immigrants living in France.

Although this fact is hardly ever commented on, France enjoys the highest birth rate of all European states. While the indigenous French population has stagnated at around 45 million since World War II, another 15 million people have been added to the French population, either through immigration or through immigrant births in France.

This is where the picture gets cloudy. In 2006, there were 796,800 live births in France, but how many were foreigners of African origin and how many were French? It may be supposed that the immigrant birthrate is significantly higher than the French one, which would explain the large numbers of disaffected so-called "youths" currently shooting at policemen and randomly lashing out at French lives and property.

The reason why the Paris region, called Ile de France, has been at the forefront of the current ethnic clashes is that almost half of all immigrants live in that area. Since the Middle Ages, Paris has been one of the largest and most important economic and cultural centers in Europe. Millions of non-European, Muslim people have now permanently settled around Paris. Therefore, a Third World beachhead already exists in the heart of Europe, with Paris and its restive banlieues already a theatre of civilizational clash.

The cultural consequences of the African invasion of France were more or less summed up by Time magazine in a recent edition with the following words on the cover: "The Death of French Culture." According to the Time reporter, Don Morrison, "France has become a multiethnic bazaar of art, music and writing from the banlieues and disparate corners of the nonwhite world."

The magazine looks forward to a fundamental change in French culture where "the country's angry, ambitious minorities" will dominate and "a sharper, more poetic version of American rap" by Congolese rappers will be regarded as the exemplar of French taste.

However, not even Time with its predictable obeisance to multiculturalism can deny that France has become an ethnic battleground, with potentially dire consequences for Europe and the West as a whole.

Some people are predicting that France will become the first Muslim country in Europe. Given the rapid pace of French demographic change, such a prediction is not far-fetched. While President Sarkozy has been verbally abusing the "thugs" who commit violence and arson, there has been no rethink on the viability of multiculturalism in France.

Sarkozy has also publicly stated that his government "will not reward violence with money." However, after having spent billions of euros to Islamicize France for so long, a few riots will hardly push the country off its course of national suicide.

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Dan Roodt is an Afrikaner author and activist.