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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI can understand why many French Muslims feel resentful
and marginalized. I get why they feel there's a lot of hypocrisy- both in general and legally.
French comedian Dieudonne has been arrested. He posted, then quickly deleted, the following on Facebook:
“As for me, I feel I am Charlie Coulibaly”.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/quenelle-comedian-dieudonne-arrested-for-apology-for-terrorism-9976667.html
OK. I have no love for this guy. He is clearly anti-semitic. He's aligned himself with the far right. But arrested for defending terrorism for that comment?
From Wiki, here's some info on DIeudonne:
<snip>
Dieudonné initially achieved success with a Jewish comedian, Élie Semoun, humorously exploiting racial stereotypes. He campaigned against racism and was a candidate in the 1997 and 2001 legislative elections in Dreux against the National Front, the French far-right political party that he perceived as racist.[1][2] On 1 December 2003, Dieudonné performed a sketch on a TV show about an Israeli settler whom he depicted as a Nazi. Some critics argued that he had "crossed the limits of antisemitism" and several organizations sued him for incitement to racial hatred. Dieudonné refused to apologize and denounced Zionism and the Jewish lobby.[3]
Dieudonné approached Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the National Front political party that he had fought earlier, and the men became political allies and friends.[4] Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson appeared in one of his shows in 2008.[5][6] Dieudonné described Holocaust remembrance as "memorial pornography".[7] Dieudonné was convicted in court eight times on antisemitism charges.[8][9] Dieudonné subsequently found himself with increasing frequency banned from mainstream media, and many of his shows were cancelled by local authorities.[10][5][11][12][13][14] Active on the internet and in his Paris theater, Dieudonné has continued to have a following.[15] His quenelle signature gesture became notorious in 2013, particularly after footballer Nicolas Anelka used the gesture during a match in December 2013.
After Dieudonné was recorded during a performance mocking a Jewish journalist, suggesting it was a pity that he was not sent to the gas chambers,[16] French Interior Minister Manuel Valls stated that Dieudonné was "no longer a comedian" but was rather an "anti-Semite and racist" and that he would seek to ban all Dieudonné's public gatherings as a public safety risk.[17] The ban on his shows has been upheld by French courts.
<snip>
Much more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieudonn%C3%A9_M%27bala_M%27bala
I guess what I'm saying is that trying to understand different perspectives is important to me. Right now that means specifically trying to understand the French Muslim perspective. A lot of French Muslims feel marginalized. There's high unemployment, particularly of young French Muslim men. There appears to be a sort of "ghettoization" of Muslims in France. How does this contribute to radicalization? Understanding (or attempting to) isn't the same thing as condoning.
I do think this has to do with Islam; using Islam in a way that isn't mainstream to fuel resentments and to gain a sense of power, to avenge slights, etc. And yes, I think Islam has some pretty unique (among the major religions) problems right now. It's not like other religions haven't had major problems and schisms in the past. Saying it's a tiny minority is true, but it doesn't mean that that minority doesn't wield power and wield it destructively. Saying it's a perversion of the religion is true, but it doesn't mean that it isn't part of the religion.
Assimilation and multiculturalism are uneasy partners, particularly in this time, when there is so much hate and contempt directed at Muslims.
It's worth, I think, trying to understand.
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Behind the Aegis
(53,976 posts)Anti-semitic French comedian Dieudonné was arrested after he seemingly compared himself to the terrorist who murdered four people at a kosher supermarket in Paris last week.
I don't agree with arresting someone over something like what he said, but damn if some people really don't show their true fucking colors!
This is will likely be used as yet one more, "but the Jews get special treatment" and the "Muslims get the shaft" despite his not being a Muslim.A lot of French Muslims feel marginalized. There's high unemployment, particularly of young French Muslim men. There appears to be a sort of "ghettoization" of Muslims in France.
This is very true. In situations where xenophobia/immigration issues/the 'other' intersect, there is a backlash against the ones who are at the mercy of the government.
cali
(114,904 posts)Behind the Aegis
(53,976 posts)Third, the propaganda machine of the AngloZionist Empire is telling us that "Islam is the enemy" or that "Islam is not compatible with western values". But to prove their point they use examples which prove nothing: the example of the Takfiri crazies unleashed, I will never cease to repeat it, by the AngloZionists. The merits and faults of Islam as a religion have nothing to do with the events of Paris. Nothing. Takfirism is to Islam what Nazism is to the Western civilization: a vicious and pathological expression of demonic hatred masquerading as the defense of a culture/civilization/religion. Nazism does not "prove" that the West is inherently evil and Takfirism does not prove that about Islam. Now, please pay attention, it *might* be that there is something really wrong (or not) with western civilization or Islam, but you cannot prove that by using the example of Nazism or Takfirism.Charlie Hebdo fired someone for exercising his free speech
Maurice Sinet, 80, who works under the pen name Sine, faces charges of "inciting racial hatred" for a column he wrote last July in the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. The piece sparked a summer slanging match among the Parisian intelligentsia and ended in his dismissal from the magazine.
"L'affaire Sine" followed the engagement of Mr Sarkozy, 22, to Jessica Sebaoun-Darty, the Jewish heiress of an electronic goods chain. Commenting on an unfounded rumour that the president's son planned to convert to Judaism, Sine quipped: "He'll go a long way in life, that little lad."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/4351672/French-cartoonist-Sine-on-trial-on-charges-of-anti-Semitism-over-Sarkozy-jibe.html
One post from an anti-Semitic site, that Skinner finds repulsive, but gets a pass here, and the other from something most people refer to the "Tory-rag", but they have something in common...JEWS!!!!
When did "Jew" and "Muslim" become opposites? If I had to guess...1948.
cali
(114,904 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)The quenelle has become viral, with many photos posted to the internet showing individuals posing while performing quenelles at wedding parties, in high school classes, underwater, or in front of the Parc Astérix theme park.[2][9]
Following an incident in which the quenelle gesture was used by French soldiers stationed outside a synagogue in the sixteenth arrondissement of Paris, the president of the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism wrote an open letter to Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, dated September 9, 2013, in which he described the gesture as "an inverted Nazi salute representing the sodomy of the victims of the Holocaust."[10] He also appears in the French TV show "Complément d'enquête" making the same claims.[citation needed] Dieudonné and his lawyers filed a lawsuit against the League in December 13, 2013.[11][12]
Critics see quenelle salutes performed (and photographed) in front of prominent Holocaust landmarks and Jewish institutions as proof of the prejudiced intent of the gesture. Individuals have been photographed performing the gesture at the Auschwitz extermination camp, and Alain Soral performed a quenelle in front of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.[13] One man, now sought by French police, performed the quenelle at three locales connected to the murder of Jews: two at sites related to the March 2012 Toulouse shootings and the other near the Paris monument commemorating the Holocaust.[3][14]
According to Jean-Yves Camus, a French academic, the quenelle is a "badge of identity, especially among the young, although it is difficult to say whether they really understand its meaning." Camus stated that Dieudonné has become the focus of a "broad movement that is anti-system and prone to conspiracy theories, but which has antisemitism as its backbone."[13]
