France braced for protest over Mohammed cartoons

France is temporarily closing its embassies and schools in 20 countries after a French satirical magazine published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

"We have indeed decided as a precautionary measure to close our premises, embassies, consulates, cultural centres and schools," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said of the shut-down on Friday, the day of prayer across the Muslim world.

Issues of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine hit newsstands with a front cover showing an Orthodox Jew pushing a turbaned figure in a wheelchair with several caricatures of the Prophet on its inside pages, including some of him naked.

The front page cartoon had the wheelchair-bound figure saying "You mustn't mock" under the headline "Untouchable 2", a reference to a hugely popular French movie about a paralysed rich white man and his black assistant.

Call for calm

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius criticised the move as a provocation and said he had ordered security beefed up at French diplomatic offices in the Muslim world.

"Is it relevant and intelligent in this environment to add fuel to the fire? The answer is no," Fabius told France Info radio. "I'm very worried... and when I saw this I immediately issued instructions for special security precautions to be taken in all the countries where it could be a problem."

The government has called for restraint over the cartoons, restating the principles of free speech in France and urging those shocked by the images to take action through the courts.

Muslim leaders in France, which has Europe's largest Muslim population, have appealed for calm.

The publication came amid widespread outrage over a short film that mocks the Prophet, which was made with private funds in the United States and has ignited days of sometimes deadly protests in the Arab world, Africa, Asia and some Western countries.

As outrage over the anti-Muslim film continues to fuel violence and protests across the Islamic world, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the authorities had rejected a request to hold a march against the film in Paris.

"There is no reason for us to allow conflicts that do not concern France to enter our country," Ayrault told RTL radio.

The French authorities sent riot police to protect the Hebdo offices in Paris.

Offices firebombed

Social media had circulated calls for a protest on Saturday against the film, after police arrested about 150 people who tried to take part in an unauthorised protest near the U.S. Embassy in Paris last week.

Last November Charlie Hebdo's Paris offices were fire-bombed after it published a mocking caricature of Mohammed.

In 2005, Danish cartoons of the Prophet sparked a wave of violent protests across the Muslim world that killed at least 50 people.

Many Muslims consider any representation of Allah or the Prophet Mohammed offensive.

www.channel4.com/news/france-braced-for-...er-mohammed-cartoons

I admire the Grand Mufti of Syria when he said that it is not possible to insult Mohammed and Jesus and that it only reflects badly on the speaker.

I also oppose censorship in almost all of its forms and certainly I disagree with Blasphemy laws as they stand across most of Europe (most countries in Europe have them).

France, apart from a few regions, has abolished their blasphemy laws but they stil have this:



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_in_France#Holocaust

Wouldn't it be a welcome relief if people followed Gods and Prophets who weren't so fragile of ego that they needed puny humans to protect them from insults?

true feather.. its all a bit tiresome.

and thor was a little bitch.
*checks outside for vikings*

batou wrote:

Who drew up the pictures?

batou wrote:


silvershine wrote:
Quite alot of info on the wiki page. It's not the first time they've done this type of thing, it's a regular theme to take the piss of prophets and they appear to have paid a price for that on more than one occasion.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hebdo

The people who can't handle this kind of stuff are all fruits in my opinion. If they weren't so fucking dangerous, I'd find them very laughable.

psketti wrote:
Do you still believe that cartoons and youtube clips are the root cause of their greivances?

mikey mikey wrote:
No. Never did.

psketti wrote:
and

No apology required lad

Sorry to do a 'copy & paste' then run without commenting. I was bullied into going to the flicks to see ParaNorman.

I thought the article was interesting in that it raises a few subjects, as noted by Mikey - freedom of speech, mocking religions, blood-shed for mocking or religions.

But that's all a bit deep and dark for me at the minute, so the only comment I'd intended making was - can you imagine the type of person who decides...

"Yes, people have been murdered in cold blood for such things before, and it's a particularly sore subject at present, what with the embassies being attacked and corpses dragged into the street & such like - but fuck it - I WILL exercise my right to freedom of speech by printing an unfunny joke. Bollocks to the people I offend, and the ones whose lives I endanger".

That person must either passionately want to line up another excuse for violence to occur, or have a giant ego and be the village idiot.

The mind boggles.

Gilly wrote:
They're all good points.

And it appears to be ego that's ruling this latest decision given the editors comments in regards to it all.

^ That's sheer bloody arrogance talking, right there imo. He's acknowledging it's provocative - he might give that more weight if any of the victims of that deliberate provocation were his relatives. Because they're all somebody's relatives.

Obviously the violence and insanity can't be condoned, but what kind of tw*t goes out of his way to 'provoke' more of it!

The British press have been told to clean up their act, now, the french press are playing up.

Has someone put them up to it?

silvershine wrote:
It's a distinct possibility, imo.

Gilly wrote:
I see a pattern.

Gilly wrote:

We have two choices

Either make it illegal to make jokes or cartoons about certain religions or accept the consequences.


What sort of people are provoked into bloodshed due to cartoons or jokes about their religion.

nirvana wrote:
You can't ban all of it, some are ok, heck, even some religious folk make jokes about it when doing talks.

Religion, I think, will always have its critics whether it be comical or serious.

Question from the back of the elevator:

Why all this crap right around 9-11?

Sure, private people could be taking it upon themselves to incite crap upon the world.

But.....in my naivete, wouldn't the far right wing pastors shout a lot on TV or something? Who knows?

All I do know is the poo is hitting it as far as I can see in MS Western media here in USA.

Still, there are plenty of private, loose cannons out there, which cannot be ruled out.