The murder of a French middle-school teacher by a Muslim fanatic would, one would have thought, led to an expression of horror worldwide, and a demand not only in France but by non-Muslims everywhere that the Muslim political leaders and clerics denounce that murder in no uncertain terms. Alas, that is not what has happened. Instead, it is the Muslim lands that are now intent on punishing France with economic boycotts. It is French visitors who are being warned to be wary in Muslim lands, lest they be attacked by Muslims “getting back” at France by attempting to murder its nationals abroad. This dangerous situation is discussed here: “France Warns Citizens to Be Cautious as Anger Seethes in Muslim World Over Cartoons,” Algemeiner, October 27, 2020:
France warned its citizens living or traveling in several Muslim-majority countries to take extra security precautions on Tuesday as anger surged over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad….
France’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday issued safety advice to French citizens in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Iraq and Mauritania, advising them to exercise caution. They should stay away from any protests over the cartoons and avoid any public gatherings.
“It is recommended to exercise the greatest vigilance, especially while traveling, and in places that are frequented by tourists or expatriate communities,” it said.
The French Embassy in Turkey issued similar advice to its citizens there….
The French Interior Minister, Gerald Darmarin, has been like a rock in the current crisis: he will give no quarter to Muslims in or out of France who threaten the French state, French economic interests, or individual French people. Neither he nor President Macron has any patience for those who presume to dictate what can be discussed or shown in a French school or, indeed, anywhere in France. They have come down firmly on the side of free speech in the case of the cartoons of Muhammad, and have had the “forces of order” (the police and other security personnel) rounding up Muslims suspected of terrorist ties, including those who were sought most immediately for having whipped up the Chechen murderer of Paty or, after Paty’s murder, of celebrating it on social media.
Paris has recalled its ambassador in Ankara, and Pakistan’s parliament on Monday passed a resolution urging the government to recall its envoy from Paris….
Erdogan, the Turkish despot, has been the most outspoken in his criticism of President Macron for defending the exercise of free speech – including the use of cartoons of Mohammad in.a discussion of that very subject in a middle-school class. Erdgoan, of course, is an expert on free speech, a past master on how to curtail it; under his rule, more journalists have been jailed in Turkey than in any other country.
Since the beheading of the teacher Paty this month, the cartoons have been displayed in France in solidarity, angering some Muslims.
The cartoons have been displayed “as an act of solidarity” with the murdered teacher, a martyr to free speech, and also, by implication, with the nine cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo who were killed in 2015 by the Kouachi brothers for originally publishing those Muhammad cartoons. Some Muslims have been angered by this sympathy for Samuel Paty. How do those Muslims think the French feel about his murder? Or are these angry Muslims completely lacking the empathetic imagination? Yes, that seems to be the case. After all, why should the “best of peoples,” the Muslims, care what the Infidels – who are “the most vile of created beings” — think about anything?
President Emmanuel Macron, who met representatives of France’s Muslim community on Monday, has pledged to fight “Islamist separatism,” saying it was threatening to take over some Muslim communities in France.
Macron will now discover, to his chagrin, that there are areas in France where the “Islamist separatism” is not just “threatening” to take over, but has already taken over many no-go neighborhoods in French cities. In these areas heavily populated by Muslims, non-Muslims fear to visit, and that includes representatives of the French state, such as the police and firemen and sanitation men, who enter these neighborhoods only under guard; such areas as Seine St.-Denis in Paris, Lunel just outside Montpellier, the 3rd arrondissement in Marseille, the Empalot neighborhood of Toulouse, are already examples of “Islamist separatism.”
Saudi Arabia appeared to be taking a moderate response to the controversy, steering clear of boycott calls. A Saudi foreign ministry official said on Tuesday the Gulf state condemns all acts of terrorism, an apparent reference to Paty’s killing.
“Freedom of expression and culture should be a beacon of respect, tolerance and peace that rejects practices and acts which generate hatred, violence and extremism and are contrary to coexistence,” the official said in a statement….
The Saudis were in this case a force for moderation, counseling against an “overreaction” by Muslims to Macron’s remarks, refusing to join the calls for a boycott of French goods, and even condemning as “terrorism” the murder of Samuel Paty. Of course they also obliquely criticized Paty: “freedom of expression…should be a beacon of respect, tolerance, and peace” that “rejects practices and acts which generate hatred, violence, and extremism.” In other words, freedom of expression means, in Muslim terms, “if you can’t say something nice [about Islam], don’t say anything at all.” If you criticize or mock Islam in any way, that will only, and quite justifiably, “generate hatred, violence, and extremism [from Muslims] – such a reaction is the fault of those Infidels who were clearly intent on inflaming Muslims, and succeeded. Blame the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, blame Samuel Paty. But don’t blame Muslims for defending the honor of their Prophet.”
Turkey’s Erdogan on Monday asked his compatriots to stop buying French goods and accused France of pursuing an anti-Islam agenda….
Apparently, for Erdogan, Macron’s refusing to denounce the use of the cartoons of Muhammad in a class on freedom of expression, his stout defense of free speech, makes the French President guilty of having an “anti-Islam agenda.” He clearly does not understand: Macron would defend just as stoutly any similar cartoons of Moses, Jesus, or the Buddha. Freedom of expression is clearly something that Erdogan cannot comprehend.
A great many Muslim states – Iran, Turkey, Pakistan – are determined to express their own displeasure with Macron and France, each one wanting to be perceived as the most fervent defender of the honor of the Prophet, and none of them showing the slightest inclination to respect French laws defending freedom of speech. They hope to attain, through a boycott of French goods, a surrender of its free-speech principles; they are most mistaken. Macron will not back down, no matter how much economic damage a boycott of French goods might do. And so far, not a single Muslim nation has imposed such a boycott in law; even Erdogan, who has been most outspoken in his attacks on Macron, has called for a boycott but not imposed it in the law by banning all French imports.
So many Muslims around the world now want to punish France for the unpardonable sin of defending free expression. Where is the Western solidarity in all this? Where are the statements by American, British, German, EU leaders? They haven’t spoken. They are leaving France to deal on its own with this attempt at punishment (“for Paty’s crime”), and extortion (“you must in the future limit your freedom of expression – or else”) by Muslim states. This lack of public solidarity with France is pusillanimous. The Western world should rouse itself as one being, in the manner described by John Milton in Areopagitica, his famous defense of freedom of speech: “Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant Nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep.” The Western countries should say to the world’s Muslims – ideally in a collective statement — something like this:
“We wish to express our entire solidarity with the people and government of France after the murder of Samuel Paty, killed only for fulfilling his responsibilities in teaching a class on freedom of expression and in practicing that freedom himself. No democratic and free society can tolerate those who would shut down their freedom of speech because they do not like what is being expressed. Some governments have declared themselves in favor of a boycott of French goods. As a response, we here declare that we have committed ourselves not to buy the goods of any nation that engages in such a boycott of France. We will, furthermore, discourage our own nationals from visiting as tourists those countries whose leaders have called for such a boycott. We shall now see, in this contest of wills over freedom of expression, who will remain insubmissive, and who will bend.”
Sylvia Drummond says
I imagine that western leaders would be afraid that their show of solidarity would result in more mohamedan atrocities in their particular country. We are dealing with fanatical savages not thinking, reasoning people.
mortimer says
Well-informed intellectuals and scholars should be hired by governments to deprogram Muslims right out of Islam. This work will be top secret and conducted in high security quarters. The identities of all participants will be top secret and the governments will deny that they are doing it.
John Hawk says
Yeah right. That’s about like reasoning with the Black Death. Good luck with that.
James Lincoln says
mortimer,
Sounds an awful lot like what the Chinese Communist Party is already doing to “de-radicalize” muslim Uighurs.
Top-secret.
High-security.
Plausible deniability.
Keith O says
Mortimer, how many times do you need to be told by numerous people that deprograming Mudslimes WILL NOT WORK!
If someone joins a cult, then yes they can be deprogramed, but when they have been born into it for over 1400 years then there isn’t a snowballs chance in hell of it working.
We only have to look at how successful the programs have been in the various jails around the world. Case in point of the deprogramed individual who killed those people in the UK.
Straight from the course to killing, all in the same day.
Seems that worked out just fine!
Ike fargarlorde says
China is doing a damn good job of it.
gravenimage says
I haven’t actually seen any evidence of this. Imprisoning Muslims is different from having successfully “deprogrammed” them.
gravenimage says
Mortimer, when has “deprogramming” ever worked? I know you won’t say.
And how can this be done in secret if it is voluntary on the part of Muslims? This makes no sense.
And I don’t think we need any more lying about Islam–there is too much whitewash already.
t. says
So what is the solution in your opinion, surrender?
t. says
I posted the following a few days ago:
“It’s not enough a few people here and there talking and commenting about the relentless media attacks, threats and calls trending on social media to boycott french products by the Muslim block against France.
Where is the rest of western countries and all of the non Muslim world, any member of which standing for the same values and principles as France, could have been exactly in its place?
The cause of Islam was and still is triumphant by the use of very primitive and simple instinctual strategies. First, the rule of numbers and second, the hunter pack, seen a lot in the animal world.
This second strategy is what is being played out in front of the whole world right now, mainly, simultaneously different Muslim governments, prominent individuals and groups attacking and threatening France.
The US and UK are silent, don’t want to offend their gulf money making machines. Germany is also silent for similar reasons. Israel just had three new Muslim partners in the region and anyway it feels that it deserves a break from its perpetual war against Islamic threats. India is exhausted from it’s own battle against Islamic jihad while the world watches in silence, …..etc.
If no body will stand by France’ side today, it will probably be his turn tomorrow.
There should be a strong, united, unequivocal response from the whole non Islamic world in solidarity with France. Why not have trending. boycotting products and business with all those Muslim countries threatening France with it?
This is how it works in the real world. There is power in unity.”
James Lincoln says
t. says,
“There should be a strong, united, unequivocal response from the whole non Islamic world in solidarity with France”
100% correct – spot on.
gravenimage says
Hear, hear!
Crusader 666 says
My solution is a 44 Magnum.
European pagan says
Maybe in the next days or weeks we will read news about French tourists who were attacked. It’s better not to go to this countries and leave them alone with their hatred. And muslims should leave France if they don’t like the culture
gravenimage says
But now the French don’t even need to leave their nation to be attacked by ravening Muslims.
European pagan says
That’s why I said muslims should leave France. It’s horrible what happened in this month…
John says
We all can email our French Embassy expressing our personal support. People power. I have Emailed the French Embassy in Washington, DC. To borrow a phrase from Anna Yelana, I congratulated France for starting to show some ‘testicular fortitude’ in combating this political system masquerading as a religion.
peter says
Please publish link to the email to French embassy .The least we can do is to support France in their hour of need. Thanks!
John says
https://franceintheus.org/spip.php?article1131
gravenimage says
Thank you, John.
t. says
A good idea!
Billy Chickens says
Muslims should understand that France is a Muslim country like some French government minister just told Sweden. Therefore they (Muslims) need to teach the French people more about Islam so that everyone can peacefully get along together as happens in true Islamic countries. We know this is true because when everyone believes the same thing there are never any problems.
Ann says
Macron needs to deport or air-drop all Muslims in France who have ever been known to break the law. Ban anti-West protests. Deport all who attend such protests anyway. Close all mosques. He’s already put tens of thousands of soldiers on the streets to attempt to protect schools and churches. Strictly monitor the borders. Stop all Muslim immigration.
70% of the French say that France will submit to Islam. Banning of Christianity, Judaism (all Jews killed), Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. Mandatory hijab. Wine production and consumption criminalized. All criticism of Muhammad or Islam criminalized, often punishable by death. Mandatory junta tax on non-Muslims. Art and music banned. Domino effect on the rest of Europe.
I think before that happens there will be civil war. I just hope the West wins.
Scott Allen says
@Ann….”air drop”….love it!!
Crusader 666 says
+1
Mount Zion says
It’s just upsetting that the focus has shifted completely towards Macron’s refusal to consider depicting pedophile Mo as an offence while the real issue at hand is completely overlooked . The real issue beeing the beheading of an innocent men and I do understand that according to Islamic standards he was not innocent but according to western standards he was , as I sayd in a previous comment you would expect all western leaders to side with Macron , instead there seems to be absolute silence about whose side they are on . What ; are they afraid of ? beeing called Islamophobic ? The old same crap ? At some point you have to throw over board all your fears and just do the right thing .In a military confrontation Muslims against the west wouldn’t stand a chance , so I don’t really understand this fear over the charge of islamophobia .I wish all western leader would come together and proclaim that they are islamophobic and that there is good reasons for that.
gravenimage says
Actually, Macron standing up for freedom of speech–which is what teacher Samuel Paty died defending–is indeed a good thing.
Jayell says
Muslims Around the World Want to Punish France? I think we know that there are more than a few million French people who want to punish muslims. And you could add several times that number from the all round Europe and beyond who have a score to settle with the ‘Disciples of the Great Prophet’.
Charlie in NY says
While it would have been far better had France (and the West, for that matter) acted earlier in the defense of their bedrock principles, lets recall the words of Justice Felix Frankfurter who wrote “Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.”
When faced with those who hold “might makes right”, words and suasion alone are never persuasive in convincing them to change their behavior. And, in some measure, the fear of supporting Israel in the face of Arab rejectionism (and of Arab economic retaliation especially when oil was king) set a trap for the bien-pensants intellectuals who delighted in showing off their superior morality by lecturing Israel from afar only to be hoisted on their own petard when the chickens came home to roost, as they inevitably do.
So, it should come as no surprise that these lofty pronouncements proved to be of the “do as I say, not as I do” type. Thus did the concept that the powerful should always acquiesce to the weak in negotiations (the basis for continually demanding concessions only from Israel) find no purchase in the EU-UK Brexit negotiations, nor did France’s September objection to Israel’s decision to deport an unrepentant terrorist who had plotted to murder Israel Chief Sephardic Rabbi give France any pause when it ordered the deportation of over 230 “extremists” from its territory after the beheading of M. Paty.
When directly targeted, a country will do what it deems necessary to protect itself, even at the risk of being exposed as hypocrite. That France finds itself alone is nothing less than an expression of the national interests of the rest of the West who are happy to let France join with Israel, patrolling the parapets defending the West. As an aside, I don’t recall any Western rush to support Denmark after the initial cartoons were published and it faced similar economic sanctions in the Muslim world and the occasional murder of innocents. That might explain though not excuse Denmark’s current lack of solidarity with France.
Should matters in their own countries ultimately require it, and those Western countries are no doubt fervently hoping that this controversy will quickly die down as it ultimately did for Denmark so that they need not show their hand, they will eventually find their place on the wall. It’s just that no Western nation is in a particular rush until (to mix metaphors) they consider the particular dam that shields them to be on the verge of collapse. Courage being a rare commodity in the international community, it seems it needs to be rationed carefully.
gravenimage says
Great quote from Justice Frankfurter.
Martin says
LONDON -UK – OCT 30 2020 – Friday prayer in front of the French embassy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjSeWjv3jLU
Andrew says
Spray them with pig urine.
Andrew says
I can guarantee if this was a Christian Church Group demonstrating at the French Embassy for some reason that the Police would not allow it to happen as well as the French would tell them to leave the premises, however this is why muslims around the World are laughing their hairy balls off at the manner and level of tolerance European afford them as they see this tolerance as a weakness as they only understand revenge.
Heres a really good way for muslims to boycott France…. LEAVE the country and take your bloody family with you… in other words… fuck off…
Martin says
LONDON – French Embassy – Allahu akbar !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOQnorWxpl8
James Lincoln says
Martin,
Looks like a “Palestinian” keffiyeh at the 17 second mark…
Lavéritétriomphera says
The Muslim countries blame France for spreading (contagious) ideas incompatible with the principle of Islam such as, merely as example: secularism, free expression, press freedom, our vision of gender equity and the decreminilazation of the blasphemy.
“I will be intransigent on the republican principles” Macron said.
roberta says
”Where is the Western solidarity in all this? Where are the statements by American, British, German, EU leaders? They haven’t spoken. They are leaving France to deal on its own with this attempt at punishment”
Admittedly there should be solidarity with France on this issue. But the French have not exactly shown solidarity with the rest of the western world—–EVER—–.Or at least the last 200 years or so.
gravenimage says
Muslims Around the World Want to Punish France; Where is the West’s Solidarity with the French?
………………
There has been some:
“UK ‘stands in solidarity with France,’ calls on NATO to defend the freedom of speech”
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/10/uk-stands-in-solidarity-with-france-calls-on-nato-to-defend-the-freedom-of-speech
“Donald Trump says US stands with France as Emmanuel Macron declares his country ‘is under attack'”
https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/donald-trump-says-us-stands-with-france-as-emmanuel-macron-declares-his-country-is-under-attack-1.1101672
But every nation in the West should be speaking out to stand with France.
James Lincoln says
gravenimage,
Former US Vice President Biden’s response to the recent jihad attacks in France:
“Democratic White House candidate Joe Biden on Thursday vowed to crack down on “extremist violence” if elected, decrying the “horrific” knife attack at a French church that left three dead.”
https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/biden-vows-to-combat-extremist-violence-after-horrific-france-attack/article32976954.ece
First thing he’ll do, if by some fluke he is elected US President, would be to rescind:
Executive Order Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States
And
Increase overall muslim immigration into the United States…
gravenimage says
Grimly true, James.