When the devastation of Hurricane Katrina exposed unacceptable conditions of poverty and alienation around New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast, there was much tongue-clucking.

Among those doing so were the French, who noted that the hurricane's aftermath betrayed the divisions and ignored social problems just beneath our placid American surface.

To be fair, the French were hardly the only ones to make that point.

Now the French have an opportunity to look into their own souls and their own less-than-perfect record of unity, equality and fraternity.

A rash of riots, car burnings and other disruptions in the outskirts of Paris and in other French cities over the past two weeks has exposed deep and potentially dangerous divisions within French society. The response there from government officials has been slow and at times dangerously dismissive.

Some commentators have suggested that the riots, which largely involve young men from heavily Muslim neighborhoods, represent yet another face of Islamic terror.

That doesn't make much sense. What must be understood here are the root causes of the rioting in France, which are quite similar to those that drove inner-city uprisings in the United States, in Watts, Detroit and elsewhere, in years past. This is a matter of poverty, alienation, social discrimination and a lack of hope.

In that, it is a problem we all share, from London to the Middle East, across the United States and elsewhere in the world.

So the Paris outbreaks do not represent the flames of an Islamist uprising in France. But they do tell us that the seeds of radicalism are there and the ground is fertile.

The cure is to give these people, most of whom in fact are French citizens, full access to the opportunities of society.