The illustrations, which show the Prophet Mohammed naked and refer to the incendiary US-made film which has been fueling deadly unrest among Muslim communities for over a week, hit newsstands across France on Wednesday.
The French foreign ministry announced Wednesday that France will close 20 of its embassies in Muslim countries this Friday following the publication of controversial Prophet Mohammed cartoons by satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. Major protests in the Muslim world generally take place after Friday prayers.
The illustrations, which show the Prophet Mohammed naked and refer to the incendiary US-made film which has been fueling deadly unrest among Muslim communities for over a week, hit newsstands across France on Wednesday.
The illustrations, which show the Prophet Mohammed naked and refer to the incendiary US-made film which has been fueling deadly unrest among Muslim communities for over a week, hit newsstands across France on Wednesday.
The magazine's editor, Stephane Charbonnier, told reporters that the pictures, which are printed on the back page, will "shock those who will want to be shocked."
But the French government condemned the decision to go ahead with publication amid a global uprising ignited by the American anti-Islam video which ridicules the Prophet Mohammed. Dozens of people have been killed during the unrest, including the US ambassador to Libya, who was targeted at the consulate in Benghazi by suspected fundamentalists.
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told FRANCE 24 on Tuesday that while he respects freedom of expression, he sees “no point in such a provocation.” Stressing that the French government would never encourage the cartoons’ publication, he called for “reason to prevail.” Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault issued a statement Tuesday saying: “In the current climate, the prime minister wishes to stress his disapproval of all excess and calls on everyone to behave responsibly.”
No backing down
It’s not the first time that Charlie Hebdo, which is celebrated for its irreverent treatment of politicians and public figures, has courted controversy with the Muslim community. In November last year the Paris offices of the paper were firebombed after it published a mocking caricature of Mohammad on its front page.
Editor Charbonnier, originally a cartoonist who uses the name Charb, told French news channel iTele on Tuesday that the paper “does caricatures of everyone, and above all every week, but when we do it with the Prophet, it’s called provocation,” adding that if Charlie Hebdo stopped printing satirical work because of pressure or fear of offence, it would be reduced to selling 16 blank pages every week.
Representations of Allah or Mohammad are considered as blasphemous to Muslims. The main Islamic body in France, the French Muslim Council (CFCM), accused Charlie Hebdo of firing up anti-Muslim sentiment at a sensitive time. “There is profound indignation at the publication of these cartoons,” leader Mohammed Moussaoui told FRANCE 24, describing the cartoons as “unjust” and “Islamophobic”. But Mouassoui also called on France’s Muslim community – which is the biggest in Europe – to “rise above their anger and not give in to the provocation”.
Pascal Boniface, who heads France’s International and Strategic Relations Institute (IRIS), tweeted on Wednesday morning that Charlie Hebdo “is not Islamophobic, but simply opportunist, cynical, and without scruples.”
But with calls already circulating on social networks and the internet for weekend protests over the US film that originally sparked unrest, concerns that the Charlie Hebdo cartoons could exacerbate the situation are mounting.
La Source
I'm beginning to wonder if the Mayans had it right all along..
ME TOO =[ I keep having apocalyptic dreams. It's awful.
And yet we're told that it's irresponsible to continue to be irreverent, unafraid, unwilling to hold up religious fundamentalists of one faith to a different standard than those of a different faith... If someone told me that I shouldn't be allowed to mock quiverfull Christians stateside, or televangelists like Joel Osteen, or Focus on the Family (focus on your own damn family!) -- I would be outraged, and I think most people on this community would be too.
But when the rights of secular people in secular nations (and France, far more so than the US, is an explicitly SECULAR nation) to mock the ridiculous aspects of religions and their adherents are under threat, not by explicit governmental action but by government reinforcement of the idea that it is wrong to speak freely when it is inconvenient to the government... ugghghgh.
I don't know how coherent I'm being. I think it's very different to create a piece of media whose explicit purpose is to foster hate and divisions (the original video) and to create a piece of media whose surface purpose is mockery, but whose metapurpose is the defense of the right of free people to speak freely.
Indeed, the people who think that such things justify murder should stop and reconsider before ending someone's life.
Freedom of speech is awesome. No one is saying that the magazine does not have the right print these cartoons.
Lemme repeat that for the back seats.
But, considering how intensely important it is not to visually depict the Prophet how about you just not do it? Just because you have the right to be an asshole doesn't mean you should go be one to make a stance for freedom~ It's a dick move. One that has no other purpose than to incite anger and violence. Just because you don't have to stop yourself from saying something because of how others will react doesn't mean it's not the decent thing to do that.
This is hate speech. There is literally no reason to do this past angering and horrifically insulting Muslims. If you want to make some argument about this being a bold statement about freedom of speech I will laugh at you. Because that opinion is naive at best or wilfully ignorant bordering on flat out lying at worst.
This happened after France has banned protest against the anti-Islam video. Because liberty. Anyone who wants to act as if France is not disgustingly Islamophobic will also be laughed at. Because, really? Laws that don't explicit target a group of people can and are still bigoted as fuck. This ban, this cartoon, is racist and Islamophobic as fuck and if you think that's OK well then more power to you. But don't act as if this is defending human rights. It's bullshit and oppression being passed off as uncompromising integrity by white European asshats.
Honestly, fuck this. Fuck every single fucking person who thought this was a good idea. Because it's disgusting. It's wilfully, gleefully, callously offensive. There are a billion Muslims in the world and the majority of them do not condone visual images of their Prophet. If you want to do this at least be honest and say you're doing this to be a disrespectful jackass who couldn't give two fucks about freedom of speech. Because this is the same country that does not allow a woman to express her faith by wearing a niquab or burka, again in the same of freedom.
Edited at 2012-09-19 09:21 pm (UTC)
♥
Is murder the correct response to international insult steeped in centuries of superiority complexes and oppression? Of course not, especially not in Islam. The people hurting and killing others for what these fool-ass Westerners are doing should also be ashamed of themselves. That others were acting out in a worse way doesn't make the initial offending action less bad, however, and people need to remember that.
Edited at 2012-09-19 09:21 pm (UTC)
Let's run away into the sunset together.
I just don't understand why this is so hard for people. (Well, I do. White Liberal syndrome strikes again.)
I don't think that this publication should have been prevented (though I do think that the timing was incredibly selfish and irresponsible given the height of emotions and the violence), I don't think bigoted speech should be silenced because I think that suppressing bigoted speech, allows hate to fester, and hides the hatred. To let it out in the open -might program some people- but if the hatred is addressed and discussed, it would probably improve things over-all. Having said that, the only rights that have been violated, are the rights of the individuals who want to protest the sentiment in the film (and along with that, I assume the years of bigotry the French have directed towards Muslims). It really bothers me that so many in this thread (and I'm not attacking you at all, sorry if it seems so) bring up the freedom of speech without addressing the speech that has been suppressed.
(not you, but France)
I just can't respect that religion. Well. I really *don't* respect religion at all, but this kind of junk makes me even less respectful. Fanatics suck.
Extremists do not need to be coddled, nor do those with violent political agendas. We can condemn them and not condone their actions while also recognizing what these inflammatory cartoons are,, where they come from, and what environment they are interacting in.
Boiling this down to an issue of "free speech" vs "violent repression of free speech" false dilemma is just as short-sighted as pretending this is mostly about religion.
But my need to feel like a high-and-mighty atheist is sooooo high right now :(
why arent any of you talking about the muslims living is that islamophoic culture. you don't need to talk about the ones inciting violence, why can't you imagine the hurt someone couldve felt seeing their religion shat on by racist assholes
OR IS THAT TOO COMPLICATED
Quite fucking talking about free speech.
I would add : "and scary." :(