Back in 2011 I had a post on one craven reaction to the firebombing of the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Go here to read it. Well, now some group has gone far beyond firebombing to shut that magazine down:
Witnesses spoke of sustained gunfire at the office as the attackers opened fire with assault rifles.
The satirical weekly has courted controversy in the past with its take on news and current affairs.
Its latest tweet was a cartoon of the Islamic State militant group leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The men were then seen fleeing the building.
“It’s carnage,” French police official Luc Poignant told another French channel, BFMTV.
Freedom will only continue to exist in this world if the authorities in free nations act to protect their citizenry from enemies foreign and domestic who would act to take that freedom away. In regard to most Western nations immigration policies have allowed the admission of large numbers of individuals who have only contempt for traditional Western notions of freedom, and the authorities within those nations have acted, by and large, as if they could care less. We shall see if the murderers who have attempted to silence a French magazine forever are among such individuals who blithe indifference have allowed to become enemies within traditionally free societies.
Update: Well this is totally expected:
AFP and Fox reporting Charlie Hebdo shooters in Paris shouted “Allahu Akbar.” BBC reporting they also yelled “we have avenged the prophet.”
I posted this on another site as well: while we Americans often deride the French as “cheese eating surrender monkeys”, the mere fact that this magazine exists AND continued to poke fun at Mohammed even after being firebombed, tells me that in some ways, the French may be tougher than we are. Can you picture ANY American magazine doing that?
Odd that 11 were only injured as though the murderers were very intent on escape unlike the more radical
types who would have stayed, killed all and if police arrived, killed themselves. These could be two independent sympathizers who are technically unaffiliated. Affiliated IS people would not have left half injured in my little opinion since they consciously aim at totally frightening adversaries….at least prior to the coalition’s bombing campaign….and Kobani where their reputation halted.
bill bannon, they ARE affiliated with IS. How? By a similar reading of the Quran.
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Listen to Fr Douglas Bazi from a refugee camp in Ankawa, Kurdistan, Iraq on December 29, 2014: “I care about my people. I don’t care about the ‘Middle East.’ The Middle East for almost 2,000 years has been the same. It’s the same war, the same conflict. So, why do I have to put my people inside that war? Why?…I am angry because I know Islam very well. In Baghdad they blew up my church. I drove by three bombings, and twice my car was destroyed. I got shot in my leg by an AK-47 – by Islam, and they kidnapped me for nine days…You know who represents Islam very well? ISIL. They are the true Islam. So if someone [from the West] says, ‘No, they do not represent Islam, Hamas does not represent Islam, Hezbollah does not represent Islam.’ Who’s left then? Come on guys. Come on. Wake up. You know, stop saying those stupid things – it’s just stupid. What for? If I lose the last drop of our blood [by encouraging Christians to stay], what is the point of that?” See http://morningstarnews.org/2014/12/displaced-iraqi-christians-ponder-an-iraq-without-christians/
There are an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. If just 1% of them are radicals bent on spreading Islam by the sword, then that means there are 16 million radical terrorists Muslims. However, sadly the percentage who are radical is likely much higher.
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That said, I have worked with both Shiite and Sunni Muslims. In fact, I once had a Shiite Muslim for a boss. He kept a Koran on his desk at work and read it regularly. I never caught him doing his five daily prayers, but he would shut the door to his office for privacy. And his written language which I tried to one time to write is really quite beautiful – Farsci as I recall. Now while I absolutely oppose Islam as a false religion, I would never ever insult him or any other Muslim. My attitude was not inspired by fear of him but out of respect and awe for his devotion. We Catholic Christians should be half as devoted.
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So yes, Islam has to be defeated as a false religion (and Jesus Christ will defeat it once and for all at the end of time), and yes, the only thing that radical Muslims (in a minority, true, but nevertheless a significant minority) will respect is overwhelming and unremitting force. I wish that were not the case, but it is. However, I will not show disrespect to the Muslims with whom I work. They do not seem to be radicals. They just want to come to work, get a paycheck and go home to wife and children as normal people do. Unfortunately, Islam as a religion breeds fanaticism more than any other religion. Only atheistic communism and Nazism are worse in murdering people.
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🙁
“We Catholic Christians should be half as devoted.”
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Absolutely correct Paul. I recall the nominally Catholic Liam Neeson once expressed admiration for Islam’s mandatory five daily prayers and said he wished Catholicism had something like it. Many then jumped in on the internet to say “We do!” and proceeded to describe the Liturgy of the Hours. Not mandatory, for sure, but similar in intent. The 1st century Didache told Christians they should pray the Our Father three times a day.
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We should be half as devoted.
Interesting that you say that, Tom D. One day at work a Sunni Muslim engineering co-worker caught me praying my Rosary during lunch time and remarked that he had a similar practice with his Muslim prayer beads. He admired that I unashamedly prayed the Rosary during my lunchtime runs regardless of who was looking. We developed a friendship after that and exchanged books to read. I found that I could be a witness for Christ without being my normal caustic, irascible, judgmental self – oh what a surprise! He eventually left the company for what I assume were greener pastures elsewhere. Hopefully I have left on him a positive memory of what being a Catholic really means.
That brings up another subject Paul: most Catholics are unaware that there is a large varieties of ‘prayer beads’ in Christianity. Chaplet is the generic term – the rosary is a specific chaplet, but there are many others. Some are said on a standard rosary, some have dedicated chaplets with different bead counts (one example being the Chaplet of the Seven Dolors of Our Lady). Another ‘non-circular chaplet’ [yes, that is an oxymoron] is the Pater Noster. Also, Eastern churches have a prayer bead called the Chotki. which has 25-100 beads; on each is said the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, Have mercy on me, a sinner”. There is a rich history here that is almost forgotten today.
Tom,
They claimed they were Al Qaeda but spoke fluent French according to the noon news. I know independents are lethal….I’m just thinking that thankfully they were not thorough in their murder as I think IS Chechens would be. A $20 motion detector near the office front door would have alerted the bodyguard during the meeting they were having …who was also killed. I have several motion detectors…being under a lukewarm pistol threat by a non religious ghetto dude I choked out after he broke into an evergreen covered window of ours and stole a lethal weapon inter alia. I did something else to him but that will never be detailed in print…evah…and I stand corrected in that by God. Warning….burglars love windows covered by evergreens…who knew. Ours was a holly tree that had to sting him with those leaves that went all the way to the window….hence his anger at my relieving him of our things out on the sidewalk as he was escaping.
Speaking of tradition, I’ve discovered a new penance besides watching Piers Morgan gun debates…eating defrosted mushrooms…though which is worse is hard to discern.
bill, such lines are already blurring:
What is driving French nationals to join Islamic State? [BBC News 11/19/2014 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30119868%5D:
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With delicate features and an unkempt beard, Maxime Hauchard, 22, helped to carry out executions in the arid Syrian landscape.
He was once, according to his uncle, a calm and happy little boy. “He was never even naughty as a child,” Pascal Hauchard said.
But this week, Maxime became the latest name in the roll-call of Western recruits fighting alongside Islamic State.
He had already given a Skype interview to French television, describing life in Syria and his desire to become a martyr.
It’s an odd kind of celebrity for a French boy from rural Normandy who, according to local reports, converted to Islam at the age of 17.
But converts appear to make up a striking number of the French citizens attracted to the militants’ cause…
“They do it on purpose, of course they do,” says Professor Jean-Pierre Filiu, from the School of International Affairs at Sciences-Po.
“Western recruits have no military value [to militant groups] at the moment; they have no [perhaps less is now the correct word – Tom] training or expertise. Their value is in propaganda and recruitment. Militant leaders want to use European Muslims as hostages for their own propaganda, to generate fear of a fifth column back home. And it’s working.“
The worthiness of being devoted is totally dependent on the worthiness of the object of that devotion.
TomD,
I agree with you. I think IS has been dumping fast trained recruits with some experienced troops into Kobani as soon as they saw it was turning against them as we bombed committedly after being half committed in the beginning because we list Turkish Kurd groups as terrorist. When Peshmerga entered with heavier weapons from Iraq ( stage 3) , I’ll bet IS upped the number of Euro recruits further being sent to Kobani which they know is a losing hand by now…lbut withdrawing causes recruit fails itself. They are users…they probably lost over 3K to bombs in Kobani by now. It’s fish in a barrel.
I’d like to hear those devoted Islamists stand up and tell us what they are devoted to, that separates them from their fellows.
. France has no death penalty by Constitution since 2007 but in the 1960’s and 70’s, France guillotined a number of people. So if caught, these men will get life sentences which to Pope Francis and maybe three others on earth is a hidden guillotine.
Anzlyne,
Bukhari is canonical as an hadith author. So for Sunnis, this is virtually the Koran itself. The men in paradise will get 72 dark eyed houri plus their wives but they’ll be able to visit one without the others knowing.
“The statement of Allah, Beautiful fair females restrained [i.e. chained] in pavilions. Narrated Qaisi, Allah’s Apostle said, ‘In Paradise there is a pavilion made of a single hollow pearl sixty miles wide, in each corner there are wives who will not see those in the other corners; and the believers will visit and enjoy them.’” Bukhari vol.6:402 and prior p.374
So……there will be some trust issues in Paradise I suspect. You can see the draw in this to the unemployed young muslim males who can’t afford one wife and family now in real reality. They are promised a prodigal non reality. It’s strangely for the unemployed young male….a rediculous compensation for his life here on earth. And yes….it’s carnal….the opposite of Christ saying of Heaven….” they will neither marry nor be given in marriage for they shall be as the angels “. You’ll know your earthly spouse as a special friend but sex as an affirmation by them will be unnecessary since you are totally affirmed by God and in God.
And his written language which I tried to one time to write is really quite beautiful – Farsci as I recall
But Arabic and Farsi preceded Islam. What could have been of the Middle East if Islam did not happen?
. The three suspects are identified by name…not caught yet.
“But Arabic and Farsi preceded Islam. What could have been of the Middle East if Islam did not happen?” That’s true. And sad. We get a glimpse into this by looking at the Middle Eastern countries in the 1970’s when all Faiths lived in relative peace. Mum tells me growing up in Lebanon, Muslim girls donned the mini skirts and fashion hairstyles of the era. There was no hijab. These same girls who are now grown women are wrapped and their husbands have possibly taken on another wife…
The goal of Islam is to instil fear. Death due to an attack is just a by-product and bonus of their ultimate goal of ingrained fear. They want the citizens of a country to be afraid to speak their own mind or live their own way, particularly if it does not adhere to an Islamic State ideal. And it seems to be working in the West.
Since the Sydney Siege, the security around the city has been extraordinary. And the mood is somber. And people think twice about going to large crowd events (it’s always at the back of the mind that something could possibly happen).
Just a little anecdote, we took our children to a public pool yesterday. There were many women dressed in burhkinis (Burkha type swim wear). A mother came dressed in a regular swim wear with a flowering shawl over her swim wear, because she wasn’t comfortable showing her figure. Fair enough. The guard on duty told her she was not allowed to swim with the shawl on. So she got out and sat on the bench and watched her husband and children swim. I struck up a conversation with her as I was not swimming either, and my husband and children were. I asked her about what the lifeguard said. She told me she wasn’t comfortable with her body to take the shawl off. I noted to her that there are many women covering not only their bodies, but their legs and head. And this seems to be allowed. She just shrugged. I told her if I were here I would get back into the water and if the guard said anything to her then she should pull him up on the Burhkini situation. In the West we pander, and keep quiet.
The only solution to preventing further attacks in the West, is to close the boarders to Muslims. Period.
Unfortunately this may be too late in France (and Australia), because most of the fanatics are second generation born.
The boarders need to be closed non-the-less. Today and looking to the future, there is no such thing as a harmonious society where Islam is involved.
What could have been of the Middle East if Islam did not happen?
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Zoroastrianism, Arianism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism, Manicheeism
Daily Beast says one killed other two captured….cnn not saying.
[…] Houellebecq – Sylvain Bourmeau The Blasphemy We Need – Ross Douthat, The New York Times Murder as Censorship – Donald R. McClarey JD, The Amrcn Catholic Chesterton’s Islamic England – William […]
The “religion of peace” strikes again.
6:03 Reuters…Policewoman killed in Southern France by a seemingly different man, bullet proof vest, and an assault rifle. Daily Beast yesterday was incorrect about original three…one surrendered, two on the loose.
Charlie Hedo’s editor and one of France’s leading cartoonists, Stephane “Charb” Charbonnier, had been named as an al-Qaeda target in a list published in the terror group’s magazine Inspire in 2013.
In an interview, he said, “It might sound a bit pompous, but I would prefer to die on my feet rather than live on my knees.”
Ezabelle wrote, “The only solution to preventing further attacks in the West, is to close the boarders to Muslims. Period.”
Including, I suppose, Mustapha Ourad, Charlie Hebdo’s copy edditor, killed in the attack and Ahmed Merabet, one of the two police officers also killed.
Should France deport Rachida Dati, who, as Minister of Justice (garde des Sceaux), introduced the headscarf ban in public schools?
“Should France deport Rachida Dati, who, as Minister of Justice (garde des Sceaux), introduced the headscarf ban in public schools?”
You can’t deport people that are born in that country. Unfortunately.
The people you mention are bad Muslims. In that, they probably are the equivalent to what we call “cafeteria Catholics”. True Islam is exactly what we have seen over the last decades on the numerous attacks on the western way of life.
These brothers (the attackers) were born in France, orphaned and led a life of dope-smoking/rapping/laziness and ended up joining a terrorist organisation.
It is bad policy to open the boarders to cultures if that country is not willing to work at assimilation. Unfortunately, this is characteristic of many in the Muslim community, to allow immigration to continue. With many (not all), they want the benefits of a western way of life, but do not respect our western values in return.
I’m second generation Lebanese Christian. I was taught to love and respect my western country. My parents assimilated into Western society.
Go to the SouthWest of Sydney and see the ghettos that Muslims have created. Many do not learn English and are highly dependant on government handouts and have so much time on their hands that they become heavily involved in fundamentalist work.
My parents didn’t have time to becoming fundamentalists in anything because like many other Christian immigrants, they worked.
I don’t see this in the Christian, Jewish, Bhuddist etc communities. Why? Because Islam’s objective: to make the nations they occupy Muslim by a) making the people Muslim b) making the land Muslim. There exists an agenda.
These men in Paris are well known criminals who are deeply involved in the radicalisation of other youth. Expect more attacks. In the name of Islam. Not in the name of any other Faith.
After Sydney, I can’t help but look at a hijab with judgement. I don’t like to, but that’s just the name they have created for themselves.
Yes, close the borders, till the next generation learns to assimilate. Some European countries have done just that.
Michael PS,
What about deporting any muslims connected via emails, twitter, etc. with jihadist thinking?
Ezabelle
Of course, a great many Muslim immigrants to Metropolitan France were already French citizens by birth in French overseas territories. It was French conservative politicians who were loudest in their insistence that “the Mediterranean divides France, just as the Seine divides Paris.”
That said, many Muslims, and especially Muslim women, are manifesting their confidence in the Republic and proclaiming their adherence to its values.
The president of the Muslim women’s movement, « Ni Putes Ni Soumises » [Neither Sluts nor Door-mats] Sihem Habchi, in a forceful attack on “multiculturalism” has demanded “No more justifications of our oppression in the name of the right to be different and of respect toward those men who force us to bow our heads”
Rachida Dati, who certainly considers herself a Muslim, said of the hijab, “the laïcité of state schools is not restricted, in the case of pupils, to respect for their freedom of conscience: it imposes a duty of restraint on pupils in their behaviour, since they find themselves in a place pertaining to the public sphere. Pupils’ freedom of conscience, which is an internal freedom, in no way gives them ‘the right to express and manifest their religious beliefs’ in educational institutions, for that involves external acts which improperly introduce religion into the public domain of the school.”
Fadela Amara, another Muslim cabinet minister, when she was Secretary of State for Urban Policies described fundamentalism as something clung to by some Muslims through ignorance and isolation in ghetto communities that will vanish when they are given better opportunities of intellectual enlightenment and of acquiring elementary knowledge in history and the sciences. “For this generation,” she declared, “the crucial issues are laïcité, gender equality and gender desegregation, based upon living together in harmony throughout the world, and not only in France” She hailed the insistence of the Jules Ferry laws on making education at every level free, obligatory and lay.
Blessed Mother promised a third world war of unimaginable proportions. Enter the third world war of unimaginable proportions.
Zoroastrianism, Arianism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism, Manicheeism
All dealt with without Islam (although Zoroastrainism as I understand is still around in pockets).
Michael,
Yes, I applaude the likes of Habdchi, Dati and Amara. Their common sense and reason speaks volumes. But unfortunately they are in the minority and Im not confident, being women, they yield much power or influence within their community, on a grass-roots level, where the problems begin.
Muslim clerics and community leaders do not speak out enough against their own. You could compare it to the Catholic Bishops who “protected” or moved around paedophile clerics..? The problem however is far worse because of Islam’s ideology to conquer.
Gaddafi defined it best when he told the Muslim world not to go out to conquer through fighting and wars, but rather to immigrate and conquer through natural attrition. Now that attrition has begun to have its effect over a few generations, how then do you manage the damage done to the safety and values of a western free society? I’m not confident you can without stopping the intake.
c matt
So is Nestorianism (Assyrian Church of the East, St Thomas Christians in India) as is Monophysitism (Armenians, Copts, Ethiopians)
Ezabelle wrote, “to immigrate and conquer through natural attrition.”
Bur birthrates are declining dramatically in the Muslim world, with those countries (like Algeria and Iran) that have seen the greatest growth in female literacy being worst hit.
Iran has seen a decrease in the average number of births from 6.08 per woman in the early 1980s to 1.8 births per woman in 2007; a decline that took a century in the West has occurred in Iran in a single generation.
Once “ignorance and isolation are replaced by opportunities of intellectual enlightenment and of acquiring elementary knowledge in history and the sciences,” the old belief systems will wither away and with women in the forefront of that shift, as we are seeing in France today. Already we see higher rates of employment among immigrant women that among their male counterparts; something that is bound to bring about a change in family dynamics.
Also, in France, one sees the rise of the « beurgeoisie » (an excuciating pun on the Verlan word « beure » = Arab) Those who have passed difficult competitive exams, have been introduced into the officer cadre of the General Staff or the most sought-after civilian administrative corps, are exasperated by anything that might create the sort of hostile prejudice that would put a limit to their irreproachable careers. They think only of keeping their heads down and hiding themselves – and who can blame them?