A French weekly has further stoked the "cartoon violence" debate. French weekly Charlie Hebdo devotes the majority of it's 16 pages to the Danish cartoons and adds several new ones. The cover illustration is by the magazine's in-house cartoonist, Cabu, and the headline reads: "Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists." The quote coming from Mohammed is, "It's hard to be loved by idiots".
The French government and Muslim organizations are none too pleased, according to the Guardian UK:
Several Muslim organisations, including the French Council of the Muslim Faith and the mosques of Paris and Lyon, had initiated court proceedings against Charlie Hebdo for alleged "racial and religious insult".To the surprise of almost no one bomb threats are cascading in...They asked a Paris court to stop the weekly's publication and its accompanying advertising campaign. But the court yesterday rejected their demands on a technicality, saying there were problems with the way the complaint was made.
"We would have liked that the wish for appeasement had prevailed," said the vice-president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, Fouad Alaoui.
"Charlie Hebdo wants to inflame the situation, French Muslims are saying 'no'. One cannot allow that our societies encourage insults," he said.
Update: CNN seems rather amused by it all, judging by this headline - Bush urges end to cartoon violence
More images from Charlie Hebdo magazine available at Nouvelobs.com and No Pasaran
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Islam
Tags: cartoon, danish, muslim, protest
Comments (16)
The word con is used... (Below threshold)1. Posted by CraigC | February 8, 2006 12:48 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
The word con is used to mean idiot, more or less, but the literal translation is "cunt." So they were really trying to piss some people off.
1. Posted by CraigC | February 8, 2006 12:48 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 12:48
2. Posted by docjim505 | February 8, 2006 1:19 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
"'We would have liked that the wish for appeasement had prevailed,' said the vice-president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, Fouad Alaoui."
Even they admit what the really want!
While I think that the French newspaper should have exercised some journalistic restraint, the idea that a French court was even considering a ban on the paper's publication is revolting. There are, of course, good reasons to put boundaries on free speech.
Trying to prevent somebody from being "offended" is not one of them.
2. Posted by docjim505 | February 8, 2006 1:19 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 13:19
3. Posted by Synova | February 8, 2006 1:37 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
I think it's important to keep in mind that people in France do not have a 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech. The French are not equal opportunity insulters.
The moslems who *haven't* been behaving poorly have to be noticing the inequity. As Americans we take for granted that *no one* is free from religious insult and why can't those moslems live with the rules in the "West" if they are living in the "West?"
In the US we automatically comapare the issue to the infamous "Piss Christ." What do they compare it to in Europe?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/odouble
There's no excuse for the violence... or rather, it seems likely this *is* an excuse for violence, possibly politically motivated to distract from other issues. As many people have pointed out... where does one get hundreds of Danish flags on short notice?
And the feeling of oppression that may be developed by the inequality in Europe simply *can't* be applied to the rioters living elsewhere.
The flames have been fanned in what seems to be a coldly calculated manner.
3. Posted by Synova | February 8, 2006 1:37 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 13:37
4. Posted by mesablue | February 8, 2006 2:36 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
I wonder how they would feel about this: Muslim Rave Party.
4. Posted by mesablue | February 8, 2006 2:36 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 14:36
5. Posted by Darby | February 8, 2006 2:55 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Ummm, didn't France just go through muslim riots?
Christ, I can just imagine what they're gonna do over french supported muslim cartoons.
5. Posted by Darby | February 8, 2006 2:55 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 14:55
6. Posted by Mac Lorry | February 8, 2006 3:25 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
mesablue,
Thanks for the link! There are the lunatics who want the world to trust them with nuclear weapons.
6. Posted by Mac Lorry | February 8, 2006 3:25 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 15:25
7. Posted by Donovan | February 8, 2006 3:26 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
"it's 16 pages to the Dutch cartoons and adds several new ones"
They were Danish cartoons, not Dutch.
Ed: Thanks! Fixed.
7. Posted by Donovan | February 8, 2006 3:26 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 15:26
8. Posted by Michael Savage | February 8, 2006 4:22 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Just as was in the case of Salmon Rushdie and the Satanic Verses in 1989, a European expresses free speech and the world's muslims go berserk attacking Americans and American property everywhere. I must be missing the connection...
It is not a matter of whether or not the muslims should be offended -- it is a question of whether or not widespread homicidal violent rioting is an acceptable reaction.
8. Posted by Michael Savage | February 8, 2006 4:22 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 16:22
9. Posted by dsmith | February 8, 2006 4:47 PM | Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
mesablue - Hilarious! But do you think they can rub their bellies at the same time?
9. Posted by dsmith | February 8, 2006 4:47 PM |
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 16:47
10. Posted by WASPMan | February 8, 2006 5:12 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Still, when you come right down to it, its not like the Muslim world's reaction to these cartoons was a surprise, was it?
10. Posted by WASPMan | February 8, 2006 5:12 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 17:12
11. Posted by audrey | February 8, 2006 9:28 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
mesablue - you made my night !
11. Posted by audrey | February 8, 2006 9:28 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 21:28
12. Posted by John Burgess | February 8, 2006 11:00 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Hmmm... "cons" is a bit stronger than "idiot." The French do, in fact, have the word "idiot" with exactly the same meaning. "Cons," however, does not have a polite equivalent in American English. The Brits, though, do--though it's not very polite, either: "c*nts"
12. Posted by John Burgess | February 8, 2006 11:00 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 23:00
13. Posted by Random Yak | February 8, 2006 11:10 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
I can't believe I actually support something that's going on in France. (Teach me to think things are as weird as they can possibly get...). Good on you, French cartoonists, for showing you will not be ruled by radicals (at least, not by those radicals. Next week we'll study "backbone begins at home").
13. Posted by Random Yak | February 8, 2006 11:10 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 23:10
14. Posted by EXDemocrat | February 8, 2006 11:19 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
I believe the French may have decided to take their backbone out of storage. Of course, they are still in the process of dusting it off and cleaning it up.
We'll have to wait and see what condition it is still in once they get the cobwebs removed.
14. Posted by EXDemocrat | February 8, 2006 11:19 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 23:19
15. Posted by moseby | February 8, 2006 11:46 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
I guess the French will be dusting off those WW II surplus rifles. They've only been dropped once.
15. Posted by moseby | February 8, 2006 11:46 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 8, 2006 23:46
16. Posted by boudu | February 11, 2006 12:45 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
adore the muslim rave party, sad though it is...can someone find a stream of a baptist or pentecostal equivalent, please? i'm not making an equal-insult point: they're all equally nuts.
16. Posted by boudu | February 11, 2006 12:45 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 11, 2006 12:45