La laïcité face au mur d’incompréhension

LE FIGARO: Editorial. En accordant un entretien à Al-Jazira, M. Macron a voulu faire œuvre de pédagogie. L’effort est méritoire, mais surmonter le ressentiment du monde arabo-musulman et le scepticisme des pays anglophones requiert davantage.

Editorial du « Monde ». Six ans, bientôt, après la tuerie de Charlie Hebdo, deux semaines après l’assassinat du professeur d’histoire Samuel Paty, décapité pour avoir montré des caricatures de Mahomet à ses élèves, et quelques jours après le massacre de trois fidèles à la basilique Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption à Nice, il est clair que la conception française de la laïcité se heurte à un mur d’incompréhension dans le monde arabo-musulman et dans les pays de culture anglophone. Loin de dissiper ces doutes, le discours d’Emmanuel Macron sur le séparatisme, prononcé aux Mureaux le 2 octobre, puis ses propos lors de la cérémonie d’hommage national à Samuel Paty, les ont encore accrus. » | ÉDITORIAL | lundi 2 novembre 2020

Erdogan-Karikatur: Türkischer Präsident tobt über Charlie Hebdo

Im Streit zwischen der Türkei und Frankreich um Meinungsfreiheit und den Islam streut „Charlie Hebdo“ Salz in die Wunden: Das französische Satireblatt druckt auf der Titelseite eine Karikatur von Recep Tayyip Erdogan ab. Der türkische Präsident schäumt. © AFP, DPA

Charlie Hebdo Attack: Aftermath of Mocking Religion (Flemming Rose Pt. 3)

Flemming Rose (Danish journalist & author) joins Dave Rubin to discuss the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attack, mocking religion, how social movements have benefitted from free speech, and more.

Tyranny of Silence »

Part 2 »

Charlie Hebdo & the Repentent Jihadi?

Charlie Hebdo Attack Anniversary: "What's Been Missing Is an Increase in the Number of Analysts"

Charlie Hebdo Accused of Hypocrisy as It Suspends Journalist after Death Threats over Her Articles Attacking Islam

Charlie Hebdo columnist Zineb El Rhazoui, 33, (center) has
been suspended by the satirical magazine

DAILY MAIL: Charlie Hebdo columnist Zineb El Rhazoui, 33, has been suspended / She has received death threats for her articles attacking Islamic extremism / Thousands have accused magazine of 'hypocrisy' for not supporting writer / Mrs El Rhazoui 'shocked' by decision which comes months after attack

Satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has been accused of hypocrisy after it suspended a journalist who has received death threats for her articles attacking Islamic extremism.

Zineb El Rhazoui, 33, was called to a preliminary dismissal hearing to remind her of her 'obligations' towards the French weekly following 'numerous incidents'.

The French-Moroccan columnist accused her employers of trying to 'punish her' for speaking out about the direction of the magazine four months after the jihadist attack which left 12 dead.

'I am shocked and appalled that a management that has received so much support after the January attacks could show so little support for one of its employees, who is under pressure like everyone in the team and has faced threats,' she told Le Monde.

'My husband lost his job and had to leave Morocco because the jihadists revealed his workplace. I am under threat and having to live with friends or in a hotel and the management is thinking of firing me. Bravo Charlie.'

The move has prompted outrage on social media with thousands calling the decision 'absurd' and bewildering'. Read on and comment » | Jenny Awford for MailOnline | Saturday, May 16, 2015

Slain Charlie Hebdo Editor's Lover Releases Book Criticising Islamists' Treatment of Women

The partner of slain Charlie Hebdo editor Charb, Jeannette Bougrab

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Jeannette Bougrab, ex-lover of Charlie Hebdo editor Charb, claims her dead partner's entourage cut her out because her Right-wing credentials didn't fit his image as a Leftist "womanising bachelor"

Jeanette Bougrab, the ex-lover of slain Charlie Hebdo editor Charb, has released a book criticising Muslim countries’ treatment of women and Islamists who brandish the Prophet Mohammed's marriage to a child as sanctioning child brides.

Ms Bougrab, 41, a minister of Algerian origin in the previous administration of conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy, also hit back at the entourage of Charb, whose real name was Stéphane Charbonnier, saying they had excommunicated her after his death because she was a Right-winger.

In Maudites (Cursed), out on Wednesday, Ms Bougrab wrote about what she says is the misfortune of many girls born in Muslim countries, from Yemen to Pakistan. She paid tribute to a series of women including her mother, Zohra Trari, who was forcibly married at 13, abused, and today has terminal cancer.

“Is it blasphemy to say we should move away from the archaic practices of seventh century Arabia?,” she asked, referring to the Prophet Mohammed’s marriage to Aisha, adding that she has no intention of dropping her fight for secularism and women’s rights. Charlie Hebdo was targeted by Islamists after publishing front page cartoons depicting the Prophet. » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Friday, May 15, 2015

«Qui est Charlie?» Unbequemer Blick auf Frankreichs Gesellschaft

Nach den Attentaten in Paris sind am 11. Januar Millionen Menschen auf die Strasse gegangen. «Je suis Charlie», skandierten sie. Für den Soziologen Emmanuel Todd war bei den Massen aber wenig Geschlossenheit spürbar. Manche verdächtigt er gar, ein falsches Spiel zu spielen. Das macht er in seinem neuen Buch zum Thema.

Charlie Hebdo Editor Seeks to Distance Newspaper From Anti-Islam Causes

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The top editor at Charlie Hebdo, the satirical Paris newspaper that was attacked four months ago by militant gunmen over its cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, sought on Tuesday to reject attempts by right-wing activists to exploit that attack for their own agendas.

In an interview with members of the editorial board of The New York Times, the editor, Gérard Biard, disputed any analogies drawn between the Charlie Hebdo attack and the assault on Sunday against an art contest in Texas organized by Pamela Geller, a conservative activist and blogger.

“We have nothing to do with Pamela Geller’s work,” Mr. Biard said. “When Islam or the Prophet Muhammad jump out of the news, we comment on it, we mock it, maybe. But we are not obsessed about it.” » | Rick Gladstone | Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Charlie Hebdo Cartoonist 'Fed Up' of Caricaturing Prophet Mohammed

Rénald Luzier has rejected claims that the terrorists had won

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The cartoonist who caricatured the prophet on the cover of the magazine's "survivors' issue" says he has had enough of drawing Prophet Mohammed

The Charlie Hebdo cartoonist who drew a controversial front-page picture of Prophet Mohammed after the satirical magazine's staff were massacred says he will stop caricaturing the prophet.

Rénald Luzier, known as Luz, claims his decision is unrelated to the attack on January 7 and rejected claims that the terrorists had won.

"I will no longer draw the figure of Mohammed. He no longer interests me," he told Les Inrockuptibles magazine. "I'm fed up with him, just as I'm fed up with Sarkozy. I'm not going to spend my life drawing them."

However, commentators were sceptical that Charlie Hebdo's leading cartoonist, who has contributed to the magazine for two decades, would never draw Nicolas Sarkozy again as the former president is expected to be a candidate in the next election in 2017. » | David Chazan, Paris | Thursday, April 30, 2015

French Flocking to Buy Books on Islam Following Charlie Hebdo Attacks

RT: France is witnessing a surge in people buying books on Islam. Interest in the religion has seen three times as many volumes sold in the first quarter of 2015 than during the same period last year, according to the French National Union of Bookshops.

The public has been trying to make up their minds about Islam following the January terrorist attacks at the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket, which left 17 people dead.

"The French are asking more and more questions, and they feel less satisfied than ever by the answers they're getting from the media," Fabrice Gerschel, director of Philosophie magazine, told AFP. » | Saturday, April 04, 2015

Dumb Is as Dumb Does! Converts to Islam Increase after French Attack

WORLD BULLETIN: Imams in France have reported an increase in conversions to Islam with a growing number of people coming to take their testimony of faith in comparison to same time last year.

According to a news article in 5pillarsuk.com, the number of people accepting Islam in France has increased significantly after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, with imams reporting a growing number of people coming to take the Shahada at mosques.

“It makes me want to go to Islam and to show everyone that this is not what Islam is about,” a young Muslim convert to Islam was quoted by RTL Radio a week ago.

According to the radio station, the Great Mosque of Paris issued 40 reversion certificates to Islam.

At the same period last year, the mosque gave certificates to 22 only, almost 50 percent of this year’s conversion rate.

Percentage of converts to Islam in Strasbourg and Aubervilliers was also high, scoring around 30% increase.

Lyon also followed the same trend with an increase of 20%. » | World Bulletin | News Desk | Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Huge Crowd of Muslim Protesters Picket Downing Street to Protest at Charlie Hebdo Cartoons

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: The protestors, many of whom were divided into groups of men and women and included children gathered just yards from the Cenotaph

At least 1,000 Muslim protesters gathered outside the gates of Downing Street to protest against the depictions of the Prophet Mohammed in Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine.

The protestors, many of whom were divided into groups of men and women, gathered just yards from the Cenotaph which remembers Britain’s war dead, and blocked half of Whitehall as they demonstated.

It comes weeks after two terrorists attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the Paris-based satirical magazine which had published images of the Prophet Muhammad, killing 12 staff and wounding 11 others.

The protest was organised by the Muslim Action Forum, which said that the Charlie Hebdo cartoons had helped “sow the seeds of hatred” and had damaged community relations.

One young child, who appeared to be under the age of 10, stood next to a placard displaying the message: “Charlie and the abuse factory”. A series of Muslim leaders addressed the crowd from a platform outside the Ministry of Defence, with the message “Be careful with Muhammad”. » | Christopher Hope, Chief Political Correspodnent | Sunday, February 08, 2015

Front National's Le Pen on Charlie Hebdo Shootings

BBC AMERICA: Britain "should break with the model of communitarianism" and the rights of individuals, said the leader of France's Front National after the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

Marine Le Pen said the Schengen agreement, which allows open borders across most of Europe outside the UK and Ireland, should be suspended.

And she claimed that terrorism was "only a means of Islamic fundamentalism" which France had not faced up to, due to "political correctness and fear".

She was not invited to the display of international political leaders in Paris following the shootings which led to 17 deaths last week.

In a Daily Politics film from Strasbourg, Adam Fleming spoke to the leader of the Front National who explained France did not have a crime of blasphemy, and it had the "freedom to talk about religion and this won't change". (+ BBC video) » | Thursday, January 15, 2015

Avigdor Lieberman Urges Supporters to Distribute Copies of Charlie Hebdo

Avigdor Lieberman called for the move
on 'free speech' grounds

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Move by Israeli foreign minister comes after Muslim complaints over book store's planned sale of French satrical magazine featuring caricature of Prophet Mohammed

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's combative foreign minister, has urged supporters to distribute copies of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo depicting the Prophet Mohammed after a leading book store cancelled a planned gala sale following complaints by Muslims.

Mr Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, called for the move on "free speech" grounds after Steimatsky, Israel's largest book chain, called off the event at its flagship Ramat Gan shop, near Tel Aviv, after Muslim leaders of Israel's Arab community pleaded with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to intervene.

The store imported 700 copies of the first edition of Charlie Hebdo produced following the murder of 12 people by French jihadists at the magazine's Paris offices on January 7. » | Robert Tait, Jerusalem | Sunday, January 25, 2015

Hundreds Join 'Je suis Muslim' Rally in Sydney

A protest against negative coverage of Islam and Charlie Hebdo's
caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Sydney

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Peaceful protesters march in Muslim enclave over magazine's depictions of the Prophet

Hundreds of Muslims rallied in Sydney on Friday night to protest negative media coverage of Islam and the French magazine Charlie Hebdo's depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.

Police said 14 people were moved on from the rally for breaching the peace. But no one was charged and the event was peaceful.

Some of the 800-strong demonstrators in the Muslim enclave of Lakemba held placards with the slogan "Je suis Muslim," French for "I am Muslim."

The slogan was a response to Charlie Hebdo's latest front cover that depicts a tearful Prophet Muhammad holding a sign saying "Je suis Charlie." The edition is the first since the Jan. 7 terrorist attack on the satirical publication's Paris office that left 12 dead. » | AP | Friday, January 23, 2015

ISIS Sermon: Muslims Should Kiss the Heads and Hands of Paris Attackers

Cleric Supports Paris Attacks in Al-Aqsa Mosque Address, Threatens Even Harsher Measures

George Galloway on Charlie Hebdo Attack - Comment - Press TV - 8th January 2015

George Galloway on Charlie Hebdo Attack – BBC Radio Leeds – 8th January 2015