Last week’s attack in Paris is resonating with the people of France and its neighbouring countries in a similar way that the terrorist attack on 09/11/01 in NYC resonated with the people of the US.
Funny enough the cartoonists of the satirical magazine knew something terrible could come over their head, but joked about it.
No attacks yet in France but we have still time until the end of January
The shock waves went with fast speed train all over the European continent where already on Wednesday night meetings were held. Incredible how fast messages went from one place to an other in the world and getting voices abhorrence through the global media community. Though many may even not liked the tone of the magazine they were disgusted by this attempt to silence those voices. Civilians and officials condemned the violence and authorities hunted the assailants.
The previous months with all the attacks in the world on innocent people the Muslim community stayed quietly, but this time it looked like the pressure was going to become to strong and several Muslim leaders and activists found it better to immediately denounce the terrorists actions, reiterating the verse in the Quran that tells Muslims when one kills just one innocent person, it is as if he has killed all of humanity. Though we have seen many using the name of Allah to let the world know that they were the rightful defenders of the right and only true faith, they were not afraid to kill other followers of the prophet Muhammad. Those mis-using the name of the prophet and of the holy Quran were even not ashamed to abuse little girls and use them as suicide bombers. They can not say it was for corruption done in the land that they could destroy mosques and bring fire to the Quran. In case a Westerner would do such a thing they would be the first to call for a fatwa and to ask the adversary to be killed.
Dr. Dalil Boubaker, French Council President sent a message in the world speaking in the name of “Le Conseil français du culte musulman et les musulmans de France ” (CFCM), the French Council of Muslim Faith and the Muslims of France that they condemn in the strongest determining the terrorist attack of exceptional violence committed against Charlie Hebdo.
This barbaric act of extreme gravity is an attack against democracy and press freedom.
Our first heartfelt thoughts are with the victims and their families, to whom we express our total solidarity in the terrible ordeal that affects them.
In an international context of political tensions fueled by delusions of terrorist groups taking advantage unfairly Islam, we call on all those committed to the values of the Republic and democracy to avoid provocations that only serve to throw fuel to the fire.
Faced with this national scale drama we call the Muslim community to exercise the utmost vigilance against possible manipulations from groups referred to extremists of any kind.
Already on Wednesday and Thursday night in several cities, like Brussels, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Muslims were not afraid to show their aversion for that act on the press in France. For many Muslims it was also clear that this act of terrorism was a deafening declaration of war. For members of the Grand Mosque of Paris, one of the largest in France, times have changed, and we are now entering a new era of confrontation.
The Union of Islamic Organizations of France, issued already on Wednesday, January 7, 2015 a press release saying:
Charlie Hebdo has been the subject of a terrible attack.
…
The UOIF condemns in the strongest terms this criminal attack, and these horrible murders.The UOIF expresses its deepest condolences to the families and all the employees of Charlie Weekly. {Horrible attaque au siège de Charlie Hebdo}
Also Muslim leaders and activists immediately denounced the terrorists actions, reiterating the verse in the Quran that tells Muslims when one kills just one innocent person, it is as if he has killed all of humanity.
The Grand Mosque of Paris, one of the largest in France, issued a statement on its website shortly after the attacks, saying its community was “shocked” and “horrified” by the violence.
We strongly condemn these kind of acts and we expect the authorities to take the most appropriate measures. Our community is stunned by what just happened. It’s a whole section of our democracy that is seriously affected. This is a deafening declaration of war. Times have changed, and we are now entering a new era of confrontation.
The Union of Islamic Organizations of France also responded on its website, writing:
“The UOIF condemns in the strongest terms this criminal attack, and these horrible murders. The UOIF expresses its deepest condolences to the families and all the employees of Charlie Weekly.”
Hassen Chalghoumi, imam of the Drancy mosque in Paris’s Seine-Saint-Denis suburb, spoke with France’s BFM TV, expressing his “anger” against “criminals”, “barbarians”, the “devils” who committed the attack. He wished to recall that “their hatred, their barbarism has nothing to do with Islam.” He condemned the attackers, saying that they sold their soul to hell and that they have nothing to do with Islam.
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To some Westerners there have come to many Muslims in our regions. The reaction to the growing religious group made that they became a handy tool for neo-nazis, extreme right groups and fanatical Christian conservative groups. It even became so ridiculous that some bloggers start comparing those fundamentalist forces of Islam to neo-nazis.
That there have so many Europeans found the way to Islam should have the others question their believes and the reason why those brought up in a Judean-Christian community would have chosen to leave it and search for other values. Many Christians start feeling themselves pushed in the corner by the majority of atheists and the growing followers of Muhammad and Musulmans. Because of the governments taking no clear stand they became not only confused, bewildered and frightened they also came not to trust the organisational forces being able to protect them.
The Islamicfundamentalist give the weapons and reason for their existence to the extreme right wing groups. This way the controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders can receive more support. Having previously been put on trial for his anti-Islamic views, does not bother him to keep provoking and to show his disgust to those believers. But he has also good reason to say potential jihadists should not be prevented from leaving the country, as David Cameron has proposed for Britain. Why should we try to keep them here? Why do we not let them go, on the condition that in case they take part in a war they also shall have to be considered and to be judged as fighters. In case they have done war crimes or crimes against humanity they should be sure that on their return they shall be called in front of the court and be judged according their deeds.
“Anyone who expresses support for terror as a means to overthrow our constitutional democracy, as far as I’m concerned, should leave the country at once,”
the Party for Freedom (PVV) leader told parliament in The Hague.
“If you are waving an ISIS flag, you are waving an exit ticket. Leave!”
he added.
It are such sayings which make people outside Europe or like to believe there is a serious problem for the Jews in Europe and neo-nazism/neo-facism gaining power, this also in the light of demonstrations where slogans were carried with “Jew, France is not yours” – demonstrations in Paris and other cities. Having Jews and Muslims often having many children brought also negative reactions by others, like saying
“Dirty Jewess, enough with your children already, you Jews have too many children, screw you.” {May 15, 2014: a Jewish woman attacked at a bus stop in Paris’ Montmartre district by a man who shook her baby carriage}
In 2014 several arson attacks were made in Antwerp, Brussels, Paris, Sarcelles and minor cities.
Jew-hating and Muslim-hating received new baby-powder-milk now given in abundance by Islamic, extreme right-wing groups and conservative fundamental Christians. Those last ones see a treat in France being the home to Europe’s largest Muslim population, with more than 5 million people of the faith out of a population of about 65 million, a number that’s been growing with children and grandchildren of 20th-century immigrants. In Germany, France, Belgium and Holland the problem of lots of those Musulmans is that they did not receive a higher education and that not many of the Islamic faith have reached top-level jobs. Jews, Hindu, Buddhists can be found in very high positions. The Jews in a strange way are still the target of envy by lots of lower class white and Europeans and coloured North Africans, because lots of them enjoy a lot of money or have important functions in money, diamond and wine business.
A great problem in France is that those of the French colonies never where really accepted in mainland France as French citizens with equal rights. Algerians always have had it very difficult, even when they or their ancestors fought for their “mother country” . Today we have to conclude that second-and- third-generation French people of Arab descent are often still facing discrimination, which creates a matrix for anti-Christian and anti-state structures.
The fear of Islamisation has traction in France with opinion polls showing the anti-immigration Le Pen would lead in the first round of the 2017 presidential race. The party topped the Socialist party and UMP in last year’s European elections. It may score well again in this year’s local ballots.
- Dieudonné M’bala M’bala Fan Iranien
The controversial comedian Dieudonné, who calls himself “Le plus grand génie comique depuis Charlie Chaplin”, speaking shortly after the attacks in France giving his admiration for the bombers gave also a voice to many others who, also in counter reaction to “Je suis Charlie”, cried “Je suis Coulibaly”.
After the massive protest march on Sunday Dieudonné put on Facebook:
“As for me, I’m Charlie Coulibaly.”
According to the man now living in Teheran the French Government has been targeting him for a year now
and is still looking to eliminate me by any means: media lynching, ban on my performance shows, tax audits, bailiff raids, searches, indictments… More than eighty judicial procedures have struck down on my kinfolk and me.
Often agitating and provoking he does not seem to understand why since the beginning of last year he has been treated as public enemy number one,
when all I try to do is make people laugh, and laugh about death, because death laughs at us all, as Charlie knows now, unfortunately.
He says he offered peace under their authority in the past weeks, but at the same time saying
Whenever I express myself some people will not even try to understand me, they will not listen. They try to find some kind of pretext to suppress me. I am looked upon as if I were Amedy Coulibaly, when I am no different from Charlie.
This points out an other issue, how far and in what direction are comments allowed and appreciated? Where are the boundaries of humour, criticism, the allowed and the not allowed? When people have chosen a way to give critic how are their words authorised and others not? In which or what way are many words distorted and how are they used to fill a group of people with indignation?
Growing racist anti-Jewish community movement performing the quenelle salute, pointing the right arm downwards at 45 degrees and placing the opposite hand on the arm.
Dieduonné,who was one of the demonstrators Sunday during the protest because he supports freedom of expression, is known for his anti-Semitic jokes. He is thinking of the quenelle, a gesture which is seen as a variant of the Hitler salute. The gesture brought footballer Nicolas Anelka a year ago in trouble because he made a quenelle on the football field.
The comedian recently closed even join hands with the essayist and activist Alain Soral, who is also known for his anti-Semitic views, with whom he set up a political party.
In September, the OM in France opened a study when Dieudonné in a YouTube video of the beheading of journalist James Foley by IS compared it with the way the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and Libyan leader Gaddafi Muammaf died. Dieudonné saw the decapitation of Foley as something that
“symbolizes above all progress, access to civilization.”
Minister Bernard Cazeneuve (Interior) called the Facebook post of Dieudonné M’bala M’bala unacceptable.
According to Democratic Party strategist Paul Begala in Real Time
“the real fight is not Islam versus the West.”
but
“It’s within Islam. Between the terrorists and the tolerant. Between al-Qaeda and Malala [Yousafzai].”
During Friday’s episode of Real time host Bill Maher saying the problems with the religion come from both establishment figures and extremists said in reply:
“And here’s the thing about making that distinction — and there should be a distinction, because obviously the vast majority of Muslims would never do anything like this,”
“But they share bad ideas.” {Bill Maher and Salman Rushdie Praise Muslims for Condemning Attacks, but Blame Islam’s ‘Bad Ideas’}
However, author and former fatwa target Salman Rushdie — not a frequent defender of the religion, as he pointed out — pushed back against Maher’s claim, noting that Muslims have condemned the mass shooting against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in France.
“All over France, there were French Muslims standing up and saying, ‘We are French, this is not our team — not in our name,’”
Rushdie said.
Rushdie, who had a fatwa placed on his head after publishing The Satanic Verses in 1988, also elaborated on his statement earlier this week that Islam has seen a “mutation” caused by religious extremism. He had declared:
“This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today,”
and explained further:
“This has been a mutation that a lot of work has been put into. A lot of governments — from the Sunni side, the Saudi government; on the Shia side, the Iranian government — have been putting fortunes of money into making sure that extremist mullahs are preaching in mosques around the world,”
“And in building and developing schools in which people of a whole generation is being educated in extremism, and trying to prevent other forms of education.”
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Note:
1. With his remark Dieudonné refers to Amedy Coulibaly, who last week killed a police officer and four hostages. Coulibaly was himself killed in the police action in the Jewish supermarket.
2. Two days ago and yesterday for my research I could find many Facebook pages bringing “Je suis Coulibaly” against “Je suis Charlie” and bringing hate texts against the Western civilisation. Though today they have disappeared (censored?) from the net.
3. The quenelle has been described as an “inverted Nazi salute” and photographs have emerged of people performing it outside the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and at Holocaust memorials around the world.
Dieudonne not minding to perform the Quenelle as an “inverted Nazi salute” and as a gesture against the system.
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Preceding articles:
Where do we stand in the backdrop of Charlie Hebdo Massacre ?
Charlie Hebdo, offensive satire and why ‘Freedom of Speech’ needs more discussion
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Do Al-Qaeda, Islamic State, ISIS and ISIL belong to true Islam
ISIL Is not Islamic? -Or- IS ISIS Really ISIL or ISISn’t It?
Good Question: Is It ISIS, ISIL, Or The Islamic State?
How could a group called ‘Islamic state’ not be Islamist?
Reluctance to act in Syrian civil war
Catherine Ashton on the EU annual report on human rights
More Muslim children than Christian children growing up in our cities
Christians fail there where Muslims succeed
Continues Syrian conflict needing not only dialogue
Migrants to the West #10 Religious freedom
The Frightening Reality for the Jews of France
2014: The year of Jew-hate in France
Anti-Semitism ‘on the rise’ in Europe
Anelka Denies FA Charge Over Quenelle Gesture
The Guardian: The Fascist death cult
Jewish Lives Do Matter—to Terrorists. To a Distracted Left, Not So Much.
Muslims Condemn Charlie Hebdo Attack
It’s beautiful to watch the spread of #JeSuisCharlie across the world
Dieudonné provoceert: ‘Je suis Charlie Coulibaly’
Bill Maher and Salman Rushdie Praise Muslims for Condemning Attacks, but Blame
Malaysia requires sole use of God’s title for Muslims
Public not informed enough about Jihad terrorism in Belgium
Islamic State forcing the West to provide means for Kurdistan
Women their education and chances to become a parliamentary
Why is it that hristians don’t understand Muslims and Muslims do not understand Christians?
Not many coming out with their community name
Sharing a common security and a common set of values
Not true or True Catholicism and True Islam
Quran versus older Holy Writings of Divine Creator
Al-Fatiha [The Opening/De Opening] Süra 1:1-3 In the name of Allah the Merciful Lord Of The Creation
Al-Fatiha [The Opening] Süra 1: 4-7 Merciful Lord of the Creation to show us the right path
“Who is The Most High” ? Who is thee Eternal? Who is Yehovah? Who is God?
Patriarch Abraham, Muslims, Christians and the son of God
Fear of God reason to return to Holy Scriptures
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Related articles
- “We Are All Charlie”: Millions Gather in France to Defy Violence (tunisia-live.net)
Unprecedented marches took place in cities across France on Sunday, January 11, to denounce the attack on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and the hostage situation at a Jewish supermarket at the Porte de Vincennes, resulting in the deaths of 17 people.
At least 3.7 million people attended marches, with over a million in Paris alone according to Agence France Presse.
- How Charlie Hebdo Became A Terrorist Target (uk.businessinsider.com)
As the debate over the publication of the images intensified in France, a group of 12 prominent writers including Salman Rushdie and Bernard-Henri Levy published an article in Charlie Hebdo speaking out against Islamic “totalitarianism”. They wrote:”Like all totalitarian ideologies, Islamism is nurtured by fear and frustration…Islamism is a reactionary ideology that kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present.” - Muslims Around The World Condemn Charlie Hebdo Attack (bryanpattersonfaithworks.wordpress.com)
Muslims in France and around the world have banded together to strongly condemn the deadliest terror attack the country has seen in the past two decades. - Muslims Everywhere Condemn Terror Attack (peoplestrusttoronto.wordpress.com)
Similarly, the condemnation of yesterday’s barbaric terrorist attack in Paris has been global and immediate. Here’s a sampling of condemnation which came within hours of the attack:
- France is home to Europe’s biggest Jewish and Muslim communities (zillasnetworks.wordpress.com)
Between 500,000 and 600,000-strong, France’s Jewish
community is also the third biggest in the world, after
Israel and the United States. France’s Muslims are
estimated at between four and five million.
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France has long had a difficult relationship with its Muslim
minority that dates back to bloody struggles in its former
North African colonies and the legacy of immigrants
trapped in some of the country’s poorest districts.
Long decades of insurgency against French rule in Algeria
in the mid-twentieth century, followed by a spate of
Algerian terrorist attacks in France in the 1990s created
difficulties for communal relations — which reawakened
with the rise of global jihadism after 9/11.
This week’s jihad-prompted massacre at Charlie Hebdo
magazine has further stoked fears of Islamophobia in a
country that has struggled to integrate its millions-strong
Islamic minority.
Algerians, whether by nationality or origin, are the biggest
and oldest Muslim group in France and are estimated at
more than 1.5 million.
They come ahead of Moroccans who number around one
million and Tunisians at 400,000. Sub-Saharan Africans,
mainly from Senegal and Mali, represent several hundred
thousand, along with Turks and Asian Muslims.
The country has between 1,500 and 1,800 mosques and
prayer rooms, the biggest and oldest of which is the Paris
mosque built in 1922 in homage to the Muslims who
fought for France during World War I.
France’s Muslims have been represented since 2003 by the
French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), a national
elected body, which serves as an official interlocutor with
the French state in the regulation of Muslim religious
activities.
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