Turkish Court Tells Facebook To Block Pages Insulting Mohammed, Or Else.

The Turkish government is demanding that Facebook block all pages that insult Mohammed, or else. Yes, the country that wants to join the E.U. continues to prove its unworthiness.

A Turkish court has ordered Facebook to block pages deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed, threatening to shut down the social media network indefinitely if it ignores the directive, state media said Monday.

The ruling came after Turkish prosecutors investigated the social media pages following a deadly attack on the Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Jan. 7.

The court ruled on Sunday that Facebook would be shut down altogether in Turkey if it fails to implement the order, state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

They also targeted a newspaper, the daily Cumhuriyet, for printing some Charlie Hebdo cartoons in support of freedom of speech.

It wouldn't be the first time social media has been blocked, if it comes to that.

Twitter and YouTube were temporarily blocked in Turkey last year after both platforms were used by opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to post allegations of corruption within his inner circle.

More on Al Arabiya.

7 Churches In Niger Torched Over Latest Charlie Hebdo Cartoon

This is the Muslim mentality:  I'm offended by the Charlie Hebdo cartoons in France, so I'll burn  down 7 churches in Niger.

That's exactly what happened today in Niamey, the capital of Niger, some 3,000 miles away from France.

At least seven churches were burned Saturday in Niger’s capital Niamey during rioting in response to the publication of a Prophet Mohammed cartoon in France’s Charlie Hebdo magazine, an AFP correspondent reported.

The sites, which were primarily evangelical churches, were torched on the left bank of Niamey, several of them housed in small villas that bore no distinctive religious signs. Protesters were also headed for the right bank, which also contains numerous churches.

Around 100 helmeted riot police stood in front of the Niamey cathedral at midday, protecting it from a crowd of stone-throwing youths. Earlier, police fired tear gas to disperse some 1,000 youths in front of the city’s grand mosque and AFP witnessed protesters in several parts of the city armed with iron bars and clubs.

French citizens living in Niamey were warned by the embassy over there to not venture out, since rioters had looted French businesses. They had already taken to the streets on Friday. Those violent protests injured 45, and killed a policeman and three civilians. They also burned down the French cultural center and looted three churches.

They were pissed off at the latest cartoon published by Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday showing Mohammed with a tear in his eye, and "All is forgiven - I am Charlie"

All is forgiven - I am Charlie

Not surprisingly, there have been many other protests in response to the latest cartoon.

The cartoon isn't even offensive.

Source: Al Arabiya

Charlie Hebdo Gunman Was Hash Smoking, Hip Hop/Rapper Wannabee

Long before he allegedly gunned down innocents at the Charlie Hebdo offices, Paris-born 32-year-old Cherif Kouachi was a hash-smoking, hip-hop/rapper wanna-be. Until he found radical Islam. His affiliation with extremist groups dates back to 2008. He was sentenced to 3 years, with 18 months suspended. Prior to his arrest, he had hopes of heading on out to Iraq to join al-Qaeda.  He was again arrested in 2010 when it was thought he might be affiliated with a group planning a prison break of a jailed Islamist.

It beggars the question...  why was he not still in jail, or under surveillance.

More on the brothers Kouachi.

Cartoonists Respond To Charlie Hebdo Massacre In The Only Way They Know

In response to the heinous massacre of 12 innocent people in Paris- most of them cartoonists and journalists from the French satire Magazine Charlie Hebdo- fellow cartoonists from around the world took to their pens to create pictorial eulogies not only for the senseless loss of lives, but for the attack on freedom of expression, speech, press, and pretty much everything else we in a free world stand for.

Buzzfeed has a collection of 23 powerful cartoons, I've re-posted a few.

Dutch cartoonist Ruben L. Oppenheimer:

Indian cartoonist Neelabh Banerjee:

Bernardo Erlich from Argentina:

"The world has become so serious that humor is a risky business"

Plantu from France:

"My heart is with Charlie Hebdo"

And from the Buzzfeed folk:

The rest here.

#JeSuisCharlie

Charlie Hebdo- Muslims Make Good On Threats To Kill Journalists "Charb" killed. #JeSuisCharlie

Charlie Hebdo, the French satire weekly newspaper, has been the target of Islamists for years. Death threats have been leveled numerous times at staff members. In 2011, their offices were firebombed because some Muslims were offended by the "Charia Hebdo" Islam edition. This is the same magazine that re-published in 2006 the Danish Mohammed cartoons that caused such a firestorm throughout the Muslim world.

Back in 2007, I wrote:

On February 9, 2006, Charlie Hebdo, a french satirical (mostly left-wing) political weekly, had the guts to re-publish the Danish Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons, along with several of their own, in response to the violent, over-reaction of the Islamic world to their initial publication, and the ensuing arguments about what might or might not constitute freedom of expression. Splashed on the front page was a cartoon of Mohammed with the caption "C'est dur d'être aimé par des cons" (It's hard to be loved by idiots), and entitled "Mahomet débordé par les intégristes" (Mohammed is overwhelmed by fundamentalists). And although the point of republishing the cartoons was to express solidarity with the ideals of 'freedom of speech', and to illustrate how Islam has been hijacked by extremists, the Muslim world, as a whole, chose to view it as a personal and religious affront.

Well, they finally made good on those threats, and now 12 people are dead, including 2 policemen. The first one killed was a police guard who had been guarding the Hebdo offices in Paris after all those death threats. A 2nd policeman responding to the shooting was also killed, along with 8 journalists. Stéphane Charbonnier, aka Charb, cartoonist and editorial director of Charlie Hebdo was one of the victims.

One of the 3 masked suspects has surrendered. He's 18.  Two brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi are still at large. Armed and dangerous.

One of the witnesses said:

“About half an hour ago, two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs,” the witness, Benoît Bringer, told the station. “A few minutes later, we heard lots of shots.” He added that the men were then seen fleeing the building.

According to the police:

Xavier Castaing, a police spokesman, said that three armed, masked men forced their way into the offices, firing indiscriminately at people in the lobby and wounding many. He said that they were carrying AK-47 rifles, and that the attack lasted several minutes before the assailants fled by car.

News reports said the gunmen shot at the police outside the building as they escaped. Several journalists sought safety on the roof of the building during the attack.

There are eleven wounded, some critical.

Over the years Charlie Hebdo lampooned everything from politics (both left and right) to religion, including Christianity, with no acts of violence from any group other than the perpetually offended Muslims. They murdered 12 innocent people because of some cartoons and words.

Rest in peace:

Charb,
Jean Cabut
Georges Wolinski
Bernard Verlhac
and the others who were mercilessly gunned down.

#JeSuisCharlie

More info here, and here.

And in honor of Charb and the others, I am reposting the MoToons.

France's Charlie Hebdo Magazine To Publish Life Of Mohammed

Charlie Hebdo's back again. This time the French magazine plans on tackling the life and times of Prophet Mohammed.  Charlie Hebdo's editor Stephane Charbonnier (aka Charb) still has a fatwa on his head after he published several cartoons in a September issue - including one of a naked Mohammed- that had the usual suspects outraged, particularly since they were already revved up about that anti-Islam film. Since then he's had to live under police protection, as so many others do who dare to push the boundaries of freedom of expression when it comes to conservative Muslims. But this time Charb is resting easy, so he says.

“It is a biography authorized by Islam since it was edited by Muslims" [snip]  “I don’t think higher Muslim minds could find anything inappropriate."

The biography will be published Wednesday and was put together by a Franco-Tunisian researcher known only as Zineb, Charb said.

The publisher said the idea for the comic book came to him in 2006 when a newspaper in Denmark published cartoons of Mohammed, later republished by Charlie Hebdo, drawing angry protests across the Muslim world.

“Before having a laugh about a character, it’s better to know him. As much as we know about the life of Jesus, we know nothing about Mohammed,” Charb said.

Well, I guess he still knows nothing about Islam because the not-so-higher minds are going to be just as infuriated about the cartoon biography as they were about a naked Mohammed since drawing the Prophet is haram (forbidden).  Then again, there's nothing more they can threaten him with.

Now we just wait to see what happens next.

Charlie Hebdo Magazine Staff Threatened With Death By Muslims

Now they're after the  head of Stephane Charbonnier, the editor of Charlie Hebdo, for publishing those Mohammed cartoons this past Wednesday.

French police on Saturday arrested a man for apparently calling on a jihadi website for the decapitation of the editor of a magazine that published cartoons mocking Mohammed, a judicial source said.

The man was detained in the western city of La Rochelle for calling on the radical website for the head of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which on Wednesday published cartoons of a naked Prophet.

“The essential thing is not to let him live in peace,” the man allegedly wrote.
Police have opened a preliminary probe on charges of incitement to commit murder, the source said.

But that wasn't the first threat from the religion of the perpetually offended. Some 18-year-old posted on his Facebook page that he was ready to slit as many throats as possible at the Charlie Hebdo offices.

Police detained a young man in southern France on Thursday on suspicion that he was planning a revenge attack on the staff of a satirical magazine which published cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad.

Anti-terrorism magistrates near the Mediterranean port city of Toulon questioned the 18-year-old after he threatened in a message on Facebook to cut the throats of anyone he could find at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a judicial source said.

Charbonnier defended  his decision to print the cartoons in the latest edition:

Charbonnier, who goes by the pen name “Charb,” defended the cartoons to the AP in part by telling reporters that Muhammad isn’t sacred to him.

“I don’t blame Muslims for not laughing at our drawings,” he said. “I live under French law. I don’t live under Quranic law.”

He also said he doesn’t regret publishing the cartoons, nor does he take responsibility for any violence that may ensue.

“We’ve had 1,000 issues and only three problems, all after front pages about radical Islam.”

Unfortunately, they don't seem to care that the rest of us are not subject to their religious laws, and that they need to join the 21st century where civilized folk (i.e. not sociopathic mental cases) don't threaten to chop off someone's head because they happened to feel offended by something that person said or did.

France Bans All Protests Over Mohammed Cartoons

It looks like France is finally growing some balls. One of the first countries to ban the full Islamic face veil (niqab), the French have now banned all protests that the Charlie Hebdo Mohammed cartoons might happen to inspire.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls said prefects throughout the country had orders to prohibit any protest over the issue and to crack down if the ban was challenged.

"There will be strictly no exceptions. Demonstrations will be banned and broken up," he told a news conference in the southern port city of Marseille.

Normally I would condemn leaders banning their citizens the right to peaceful protest, but since 'peaceful' doesn't seem to exist in the vernacular of the Muslims who usually take to the streets, then I say, good on you.

French Muslim leaders were critical, but asked for calm. Not that it's ever a deterrent.

Mohammed Moussaoui, leader of the French Muslim Council (CFCM), described both the film and the cartoons as "acts of aggression", but urged French Muslims not to take to the streets for unauthorised protests.

"I repeat the CFCM's call not to protest. Any protest could be hijacked and counterproductive," he told French radio station RFI.

In anticipation of trouble (we have all witnessed the violent backlash that the anti-Islam film produced, including the death of diplomats in Libya), France shuttered its embassies (along with schools and cultural centers) in 20 or so Muslim-majority countries on Friday. A very smart move, since that's the day clerics usually take to their mics to encourage retaliation for offending their prophet.

And back on the home front, police were poised to take action on any impromptu protests that might occur on Friday and over the weekend. So far, so good- not much going on in the streets of France,  although that could change.

This particular magazine edition was so popular it sold out soon after it hit the streets, and Charlie Hebdo had to reprint. The satirical weekly, which has poked fun at pretty much everyone and everything, said it did this not to sell papers, as some have suggested, but to highlight the silliness of the furore over the film.

Besides banning the street protests, Valls took it a step further:

"Neither will I allow street prayers, which have no place in this republic. And naturally the law will apply to anyone who wears the full face veil."

But Charlie Hebdo had its critics in the new government of socialist President Francois Hollande, which called Charlie Hebdo irresponsible.

"When you are free, in a country like ours, you always have to measure the impact of your words," French European Affairs Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

Letting the threats of violence dictate what we in the West do, is setting a terribly dangerous precedent.  We better be very careful how we proceed, or we'll lose our freedoms over a vocal, violent minority.

Source: Huffpo

Islamic States (OIC) Try Again For Global Blasphemy Law

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has been attempting to squelch freedom of speech for a very  long time.  Now, members are taking advantage of the latest firestorm in the Middle East (over the "Innocence of Muslims" film, and the Charlie Hebdo Mohammed cartoons) to resurrect their efforts to force their way of thinking on the West.  They want a global ban on insulting religion; in fact, they want to make it a criminal offense, just like it is under Islamic Shariah law. And we all know what that means: a sentence of life in prison or death.

The secretary-general of the OIC, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, called on the rest of the world to:

 “come out of hiding from behind the excuse of freedom of expression.”

He said the “deliberate, motivated and systematic abuse of this freedom” were a danger to global security and stability.

Uh, no. Freedom of expression is not a danger to global security and stability, a religion that has failed to modernize and evolve along with the bulk of its followers is what poses a threat to global stability. Instead of a decade-long effort trying to force those of us who cherish  freedom of expression (regardless of whether we find some things offensive or not), why not try reforming a religion that is in desperate need of it.

And then this:

Separately, the Human Rights Commission of the OIC, which has 57 members and is based in Saudi Arabia, said “growing intolerance towards Muslims”, had to be checked and called for “an international code of conduct for media and social media to disallow the dissemination of incitement material”.

There would be no "growing intolerance towards Muslims" if they weren't trying to shove their religious ideology and doctrine down our throats, or running around destroying property and killing people, including fellow Muslims. Ironically, there is far more intolerance within the Muslim community itself, but in their case they don't merely criticize they blow each other up.

Sorry, but hands off the West. You keep your Shariah, we'll keep our freedom of speech.

France's 'Charlie Hebdo' Publishes More Mohammed Cartoons- Update

Charlie Hebdo, the French (mostly leftist) weekly satirical magazine that had the guts to republish the Danish Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons back in 2006, and was subsequently sued by a group of Muslims in 2007, is at it again.  In today's edition, it plans on publishing a few more Mohammed cartoons that the editor claims will "shock those who will want to be shocked." And, no doubt, there will be plenty.

However, those champions of 'freedom of expression' don't seem to be too worried about being the next targets of Muslim rage; after all, Charlie Hebdo survived a firebombing of its offices last November over the "Charia Hebdo" edition. If you recall, that was the one "guest edited" by the "Prophet Mohammed", and captioned with "100 lashes if you don't die of laughter."  Well, we all know there is no humor in Islam, or at least its adherents are sorely lacking.

Naturally, everyone is panicking in that country- considering the amount of disenfranchised, unemployed Muslim youth just waiting for an excuse to rampage.

Jean-Marc Ayrault, the prime minister, issued a statement expressing his "disapproval of all excesses."

The magazine's editor, originally a cartoonist who uses the name Charb, denied he was being deliberately provocative at a delicate time.

"The freedom of the press, is that a provocation?" he said. "I'm not asking strict Muslims to read Charlie Hebdo, just like I wouldn't go to a mosque to listen to speeches that go against everything I believe."

Muslim leaders have also piped in, not that anything they might say will change the minds of those hell bent on revenge.

Dalil Boubakeur, the senior cleric at Paris's biggest mosque, appealed for France's four million Muslims to remain calm.

"It is with astonishment, sadness and concern that I have learned that this publication is risking increasing the current outrage across the Muslim world," he said.

"I would appeal to them not to pour oil on the fire."

France's Muslim Council, the community's main representative body, also appealed for calm in the face of "this new act of Islamaphobia."

Muslim leaders need to control their wayward followers, and not simply try to appease them.

In the meantime, I'll be waiting for the news about the angry mobs taking to the streets in France.

UPDATE 9/19/12:  Here is one of the cartoons published on the front of Charlie Hebdo.

The cover of Charlie Hebdo (seen above) shows a Muslim in a wheelchair being pushed by an Orthodox Jew under the title Intouchables 2, referring to an award-winning French film about a impoverished black man who helps an aristocratic quadriplegic. Another cartoon on the back page of the weekly magazine shows a naked Mohammed exposing his backside to a film director.

Asked if it was a provocation, Editor Stephane Charbonnier said:

“The freedom of the press, is that a provocation? I’m not asking strict Muslims to read Charlie Hebdo, just like I wouldn’t go to a mosque to listen to speeches that go against everything I believe.”

Many people do. But as Charbonnier says, if you are offended by something just turn your head. No-one is forcing you to watch or read something you might find offensive.

Richard Landes On Charlie Hebdo and Freedom Of Speech

Richard Landes, an American professor, writer and historian, has written an excellent response  to Bruce Crumley's commentary (on Time's website) regarding the Charlie Hebdo firebombing incident.

Crumley, is your typical apologist/appeaser who believes anyone critical of Islam is 'Islamphobic', and wants that criticism to stop:

Okay, so can we finally stop with the idiotic, divisive, and destructive efforts by “majority sections” of Western nations to bait Muslim members with petulant, futile demonstrations that “they” aren't going to tell “us” what can and can't be done in free societies? Because not only are such Islamophobic antics futile and childish, but they also openly beg for the very violent responses from extremists their authors claim to proudly defy in the name of common good. What common good is served by creating more division and anger, and by tempting belligerent reaction?

Landes, on the other hand, believes  Muslims should just "grow up". Although he does agree "in principle" with Crumley's objection to "gratuitous insult", he does not believe the criticism should stop.

Gratuitous insult is not what we need. Much better purposeful, serious criticism. If Crumley really embodied the maturity he pretends to, then he’d have serious challenges to Islam to his credit. That would attest to his readiness to treat Muslims as adults, capable of listening to as well as proffering criticism, to his faith that “the vast majority of Muslims are moderates.”

But if he is primarily trying to spare Muslims’ feelings – if he secretly believes that they are incapable of playing by the minimal rules of civil society; that they are not far from sympathising with jihadis for whom violence is a legitimate response to any form of criticism of Islam – then he unconsciously reveals that he thinks Muslims are primitive, violent people who must be appeased at all costs.

Here’s where Crumley and I part ways: he treats Muslims as animals or little children, and believes that he can win them over with carrots. Sticks will just spook them. So he finds Charlie Hebdo’s behavior “childish, futile, Islamophobic [sic!]… inflammatory… obnoxious, infantile… outrageous, unacceptable, condemnable.”

[snip]
I’d rather treat Charlie Hebdo as a teaching moment, as a shibboleth for detecting genuinely moderate Muslims. Here’s an occasion to teach our Muslim co-citizens about “sticks and stones.” If we can’t find Muslims to whom we can say: “this part of modern civil society, and your learning to get past the implied/imagined insult constitutes minimal adherence to principles of reciprocity,” then what does it mean to carry on about “moderate Muslims”? This reciprocity is especially significant given how virulently critical of infidels many of the most vocal Muslims are.

This radical (and pre-modern) asymmetry of “us” and “them” reflects one of the most disturbing – and to liberals, incomprehensible – principle of Wala wa bara - “loyalty to Muslims and enmity for infidels.” It constitutes the exact opposite of the modern principles that underlie civil polities in which citizens are guaranteed “human rights.”

Landes is spot on in his analyses, and it's worth a read. Click here for the whole article.

Offices of Charlie Hebdo Firebombed Over 'Charia Hebdo" Islam Edition

Charlie Hebdo is back in the headlines again.  In 2007, the far-left, French satirical weekly took major heat for re-publishing the Danish Jyllands-Posten 'Mo-toons', and posting on the front page a cartoon of Mohammad with the caption "It's hard to be loved by idiots" in French. As a result, publisher Philippe Val was sued by the Paris Grand Mosque and the Union of French Islamic Organizations for racism. A staunch supporter of Israel, the lefty Val won that lawsuit.

The latest with Charlie Hebdo came the day it was due to publish its latest weekly edition skewering Islamic Shariah law.  The name Charlie was replaced with Charia, Prophet Mohammad listed as guest Editor-In-Chief,  captioned with "100 lashes if you don't die of laughter" and dedicated to the Arab Spring.

This time, no-one was going to wait to lose a lawsuit, so in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday November 2,  the offices of Charlie Hebdo were firebombed, and their website was hacked. Apparently, there was a photo of Mecca and "No God But Allah" along with messages in Turkish and English. But as of today, there are just the words "it works!",  on the screen. Whatever that's supposed to mean.

There are, of course, those dhimmis who condemn Charlie Hebdo for provoking Muslims, like Romina Ruiz-Goiriena of France24 in her Huffington Post article.

By definition, satire is based on the premise that however serious the subject, it can achieve a greater effect if a society's follies are held to ridicule. The greater purpose is constructive criticism. However, the Charia Hebdo number did everything to scorn the Arab Spring abroad and nothing to contest French clichés and institutional racism against Muslims.



The issue was not thought-provoking; it simply contributed to burgeoning anti-Muslim sentiment. What it should have been doing was pushing the conversation forward to confront the seemingly dormant but rampant institutional bigotry. After all, is that not the point of having a free press tradition in the first place?

An extremely angry editor, Stéphane Charbonnier (Charb), said that

"The arsonist didn't read this magazine -- no one knows what's in this magazine except for the ones who will buy it this morning.  People acted violently over a magazine where they don't even know the content. This is what is most deviant and dumb."

But Muslims who commit these kinds of violent acts don't think before reacting. They just lash out because it's the only thing they know, and people are intimidated enough to give them reason to continue acting out. Granted, many in the Muslim community have condemned the violence, but there's something fundamentally wrong when your adherents find no other recourse but to resort to threats and violent pursuits.

Back in 2006 Jacques Chirac was highly critical of  Charlie Hebdo for the Mo-Toons publication, which he claimed was  "overt provocation" adding,

"Anything that can hurt the convictions of someone else, in particular religious convictions, should be avoided."

The current government, however, values freedom of speech and fully supports the magazine. Interior Minister Claude Gueant said

"The freedom of the press is a sacred freedom for French people. Everything will be done to find the perpetrators of this attack."

The  mayor of Paris said it best,

"We may not agree with this week's edition of Charlie Hebdo, but we are in a society that needs freedom of expression, and any violence that undermines this freedom... is absolutely unacceptable."

If we continue to allow violence or the threat of violence to dictate how we conduct our lives, we might as well lock ourselves up and throw away the key.

Charlie Hebdo- Update!

Well the French did it!

Philippe Val and his satirical paper Charlie Hebdo were cleared, today, of all wrongdoing in the Danish Mohammed Cartoon publication brouhaha.

Val was accused of "publicly abusing a group of people because of their religion."

Not surprisingly, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit (the Union of Islamic Organizations of France) has said it will appeal, and you have to wonder how the Islamic community is going to respond to what will, obviously, be considered a slap in the face.

This is very good news, however, for proponents of free speech!