The spasm of civil rioting that has seized France over the past few days is worrisome within the context of political violence and terrorism studies. Among counter-terrorism officials, the developments serve as a demonstrable indicator of the seething grievances, perceptions of societal inequality, and the identity crisis felt by large numbers of Europe?s Muslim immigrant communities not only by their governments but also by the wider, ancestrally ?European? societies. This building collective alienation and anger provides a fertile soil in which violence, particularly political violence can take root. At the time of writing, the Associated Press is reporting that in the last week, the violence has spread to 300 French towns.

Thus far, the spread of violence has seemingly taken on cascading and contagious expansion dynamics and momentum, with the pathogens of its spread being the images, news reports, and blogs of violence that catalyze the eruption of copycat violence in similarly disaffected immigrant communities across France and into Belgium and Germany . Underlining its viral expansion, the Washington Post reported that the rioting is ??erupting in towns with little history of unrest?.?