“It’s very important not to be afraid but you have got to stand on these very valuable democratic principles on which our societies here in western Europe are based, so I hope we will not give in. You must not surrender the very important freedom of speech.”
Must not surrender, yes. But the media is surrendering.
“Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier crossed off chilling al-Qaeda hitlist,” by Lucy Cormack, Sydney Morning Herald, January 8, 2015:
The Inspire hit list which was being shared by Twitter accounts commonly used for al-Qaeda. propaganda.
Slain Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier had featured on a list of people being proposed as potential targets in an al-Qaeda magazine in 2013.
Chillingly, the hitlist has reappeared on Twitter following the attack on the magazine’s Paris newsroom, with a red X imposed over Charbonnier’s face.
The list was originally published in a 2013 edition of Inspire, al-Qaeda’s leading English-speaking magazine, under the heading “Wanted, dead or alive for crimes against Islam.”
The updated list began surfacing on Twitter within hours of the Paris attack, shared by Twitter accounts commonly used for al-Qaeda propaganda.
A total of 11 names appear on the latest version of the list, some of whom have had increased security detailing since the attack.
Author Salman Rushdie, Danish journalist Flemming Rose and Dutch politician and leader of the Party for Freedom Geert Wilders (spelled Girt on the hit list) are just some of the featured headshots.
Rushdie, who had a fatwa placed on him after the publication of his 1989 book The Satanic Verses, released a statement following the attack on Wednesday.
“Religion, a medieval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry, becomes a real threat to our freedoms,” he said.
“Religion” is the threat, eh, Salman? I will keep an eye out for those Amish.
“This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today. I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity.”
Kurt Westergaard, who caused outrage with his drawings of the prophet Muhammad in newspaper Jyllands-Posten.Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard also appears on the hit list. He created the image of the prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb in his turban for the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005.
Responding to the Charlie Hebdo attacks Westergaard said he hoped the media world would not be scared.
“It’s very important not to be afraid but you have got to stand on these very valuable democratic principles on which our societies here in western Europe are based, so I hope we will not give in. You must not surrender the very important freedom of speech,” he said….
The full hit list is: Stephane Charbonnier, Danish journalist and former Jyllands-Posten editor Carsten Luste, US pastor Terry Jones, Kurt Westergaard, Geert Wilders, Lars Vilks, Flemming Rose, Morris Swadiq and Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Molly Norris.
Jay Boo says
Liberal John Stewart wrings his hands and is at a lost of words:
(as he tries to make sense of this)
He just cannot find the WORD
http://time.com/3659165/jon-stewart-charlie-hebdo/
joeb says
Pathetic. Utterly pathetic.
DiMu says
Radical Islam is now a mass movement within Western culture aided and abetted by the political elites who lack the will to confront it. Therefore the only solution is a mass response – as is happening in Germany with thousands marching in the streets, as is happening with the growth of political parties espousing the end to Islamic migration – all in the face of being labeled Nazis and Fascists.
Eventually there will be civil war unless the political elites listen to the people.
john spielman says
it’s islam that is forcing itself upon US with violence and intimidastion, not the other way around, islam is a fascist evil dogma that classifies unbelievers as dhimmi kufurs, kind of like the nazis and the people they classified as less than human-Jews and Slavic people
rage against injustice says
Remember the bosnian war? The serbs were labeled as racist, and fascist, by the west and muslims were their victims. Now the west is feeling the burden of the serbs.
Kenneth T. Tellis says
Then let us in the WEST counter than picture of Stephane Charbonnier with another showing a picture of Muhammed Ibn Abduallh with an x across his face! We must never ever knuckle down to Islamic tyranny, but stand up as men and strike back at it in any that we can. By doing this we honour the memory of Charbonnier Bernard Maris who gave his life in defence of Freedom of Speech! Honour the Brave, that their names live on forever!
DiMu says
Well said! Bravo!
Jay Boo says
Excellent counter strategy
Michael Copeland says
Well spoken, Kurt Westergaard! Except there is no “deadly mutation”: it is a deadly exact observance of what the Koran instructs. It is Islam itself.
St. Croix says
Exactly. A mutation would be welcome if it left behind the violent, misogynistic, bigoted, intolerant, hateful and perverse doctrines of the religion. Wait! Would there be anything left?? Yes, a few verses the apologists cling to. Would that Islam consisted of only those verses.
Jay Boo says
First it was Bill Maher calling Islam like the Mafia and now even the Huff Post is standing up for free speech.
The Huff Post reprints cartoons to inform its readers about the Islamic terror attack.
Francis Merde says
Credit where it’s due, that is a pretty cool graphic. They got lazy at the end with Ayaan Hirsi Ali though. Slackers.
Danny says
Hi Robert Spencer, have been a follower of your work for some years now, always sharing your posts on my personal ”exposing islam” facebook page. I am not the webmaster person who can set up and manage a website like yourself. I applaude your great work sir, your a huge credit to all decent humans.
Please check out my page also, it features posts from a wide range of anti-islamic websites.
Peace to all.
Angemon says
What a load of rotten garbage. Religious totalitarianism IS standard islam, not a mutation. While people don’t get that crucial fact in their heads things can’t possibly improve.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
The hit list is like a goal board flashing high on the wall in a room of sales reps, it gives the guys something to shoot for, keeps the troops in friendly competition with one another. This is genius workforce management, one has to give a tip o’ the cap must go to Caliph al-Baghdadi. The guy is visionary operating one of fastest growing startups on earth. He could end up alongside the likes of Zuckerberg, Bezos, Branson and Musk.
St. Croix says
I note that Molly Norris is on the list. She’s the cartoonist who created a satirical cartoon called “Draw Mohammed Day”–which to her total surprise went viral and was taken up by thousands around the world. She never intended to actually start that movement, merely to make a gesture for free speech in response to death threats levelled at South Park animators for featuring a depiction of Mohammed in two episodes. She received death threats and a fatwa was put on her, leading her to withdraw from any association with Draw Mohammed Day, and then actually changed her name and went into hiding, stating that she had made a protest against fear and instead became afraid.
Well, that’s the price these days. Everyone is saying “We won’t back down!” But is it just words? It’s not like the enemy is “over there somewhere” and it’s easy to taunt from a distance. There is really no way anyone can protect a lone voice of dissent. Rushdie is still on the hit-list after all these years. It will never end until he has an X on his pic as well. Unless all Islamists were suddenly transformed into something else!
However, there is safety in numbers. I see what Robert Spencer is saying about the various media wimping out and falling down on the job by not publishing the cartoons in stories covering the Charlie Hebdo murders. Pretending to be anti-inflammatory but really just scared s***less to avoid meeting the same fate. Already in dhimmi-mode.
grant says
The papers in Britain are the same they wont reprint these images because it might upset the muslim population but really their just scared shitless and gutless jesuise Charlie
Salah says
I, too, have my own hitting list, with only one name on it: Muhammad.
“Wanted, dead or alive for crimes against Humanity.”
Here’s the way to kill him: TRUTH.
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2010/12/perfect-man-of-islam.html
john spielman says
muhaamed pbuh* is dead and unless he renounced islam and repented of his sins before he died,his soul resides in thre fires of sheol awaiting the Day of Judgmnent when he will be cast into the LAKE OF FIRE to be forever separated from the Glory of God.
pbuh*- perpetual banishment unto hell!
Jack Diamond says
Molly Norris, whom rather than protect or make a “this will not stand” proclamation the U.S. government advised to go into hiding and into the witness protection program. For the rest of her life.
Mocking Muhammad was intolerable to him and the reason he had satirists killed: Ishaq:597 “When the Apostle returned to Medina after his raid on Ta’if, word spread that he had killed some poets there who had written satirical poems earlier. The scared poets who were left, ran away in all directions.” Ishaq:550 “Among those who Muhammad ordered killed was Abdallah bin Khatal. The Messenger ordered him to be slain…. His girls used to sing a satire about Muhammad so the Prophet ordered that they should be killed along with Abdullah. He was killed by Sa’id and Abu Barzah. The two shared in his blood. One of the singing girls was killed quickly but the other fled. So Umar caused his horse to trample the one who fled, killing her.” Singing girls, old men (Abu Afak), pregnant women (Asma Bnt Marwan) none of them were “innocent” or “protected”– then or now.
We need a hit list of all the Imams who call for or sanction our murders (not just the dead Al-Awlaki).
The Qaradawis of the world might think twice sanctioning suicide murder of Israeli civilians or American soldiers in Iraq if it meant their own quick death (since he very much seems to want to die in his bed of old age). Shaykh Dr. Aaidh ibn Abdullah al-Qarni has called for the murder of Americans and anyone who “mocks our prophet.” The Saudi Nasr Al-Fahd, issued a fatwa allowing use of WMD to mass murder Americans and later, in 2012, called for killing Jews anywhere in the world. All the fatwa-issuing bearded ones sanctioning attacks upon us (any of us) need to be on a (gigantic) “hit list” every bit as much as those who actually carry out attacks. (Hovering over the poster a Molly Norris drawn Muhammad who still lives– and hates and murders–through his imitators).
sergio says
I keep trying to get onto this Fatwa list, but I never quite get these non loving art critiques to add me.
SAY NO TO BURQAS ! ISLAM IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY!
Don says
I’ll bet Molly is none too happy to see her name on the list. Wonder if she has had her name changed. If not it might be a good idea.
Jack Diamond says
Molly is said to have changed her identity and moved. Who knows. It’s not like anyone had her back
and I’m sure the last thing she thought is she’d get the attention of Al-Awlaki. The truth is, some people do put their life in danger by confronting this malignancy. They are either ready for it and willing to live with the consequences of getting the attention of The Beast, like Robert Spencer, like the brave folks of Charlie Hebdo, or they have to vanish like Molly Norris. What is intolerable is that a Molly Norris should have to vanish in the first place. That is absolutely unacceptable. My best to Molly should she be reading this.
Cat Perez says
The Achilles heel of Islam is muhammad
For 1400 years muslims have been prostrating themselves 3-5 times a day and chanting “muhammad is the last messenger of god”
DENOUNCE and RENOUNCE muhammad verbally and in writing and you break the curse of muhammad’s bloody MURDEROUS satanic ideology. The WEST must do some basic research of the qua’an, hadiths, history and psychology books on narcissistic personality disorders
The TROJAN HORSE is inside the gates.