the anger of immigrant Muslims reflects their lack of opportunities and their dead-end prospects.

Instead of gearing itself to job creation and upward mobility ? as the American system does ? the French economy, society, labor regulations, tax laws and social structure are all designed to provide a high-quality life to the traditional, white population without allowing the growth and expansion so necessary for the swelling ranks of immigrants.

Shopkeepers are protected against low-cost competition and farmers are sheltered behind a wall of agricultural subsidies that are the bane of the European Union that foots the bill.

And almost everybody in France gets a check every month. The amounts vary, but even millionaires get a handout from the government. There is no resentment against welfare or the dole in the salons of Paris because everybody gets it. Middle-class entitlements are the order of the day.

But this seeming utopia costs money. Taxes in France absorb a bit less than half of the national income (compared with about one-third in the United States). And the rigidity of labor laws make it very hard to dismiss a worker, assuring that few jobs will be created.

Ask any Islamic taxi driver in New York and he will tell you his children are going to college and will regale you with his high hopes for the future. This sense of optimism and improvement kindles a national pride which tends to offset the pull of the separatist Islamic culture and nullifies much of its anti-Western connotation.

the stagnation of the French economy ? and the rigidity of its society ? leaves them a congealed mass at the bottom of the economic ladder, concentrated in poor suburbs, shunted out of sight and out of the way.