[An Nahar] La Belle France's interior minister said Wednesday after a French magazine published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that freedom of speech, including caricature, was a "fundamental right" backed by the law.
Manuel Valls made the statement after meeting with French Moslem leaders angered by the cartoons, some of which depict the Prophet in the nude.
"Freedom of expression is a fundamental right. Freedom to caricature is part of that fundamental right," Valls told news hounds when asked about the cartoons published by the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
However he called for "everyone to act responsibly (as) each individual act, each text, each drawing, each declaration can... spark confrontations".
Valls also warned that any demonstrations that disturbed public order would meet with "a very firm response from the state".
The cartoons have been branded insulting by French Moslem leaders and politicians have accused Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier of acting irresponsibly.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault suggested the magazine's editorial team should have taken the current context of widespread Moslem anger over an anti-Islam film into account when deciding whether to publish the cartoons.
Valls has said no protests against the film will be authorized in La Belle France following violence close to the U.S. embassy in Gay Paree last weekend.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
A few years ago I would have thought this was rather ironic. The French showing some balls while we (our leaders that is) try to cower and grovel in a most obsequious manner.
Around lunchtime, two men dressed in black threw an bomb into the "Naouri" kosher supermarket, which is situated in a commercial center in Sarcelles, according to eyewitnesses. Located to the north of Gay Paree, Sarcelles is an area known for festivities within the immigrant community.
The president of the Council of French Jews, Richard Prasquier, confirmed that one person was "lightly injured," Liberation newspaper reported. French news website JSSNews.com reported that "at least one person was badly maimed."
"According to several sources, two grenades were thrown into the supermarket, one of which went kaboom!," according to the site.
The motives of the alleged perpetrators remained unclear.
As Jay Carney would say, it was 'spontaneous'...
"Many people come to stock up for the holiday of Yom Kippur, which falls on next Wednesday," Moshe Cohen-Sabban, the president of the local Jewish community told Le Figaro newspaper. While there were no specific intercultural problems in Sarcelles, there was "much anti-Semitism" on a national level, he added.
Located to the north of Gay Paree, Sarcelles is home to a significant Jewish community but also to a large group of immigrants from Arab countries, which are known to occasionally clash.
Sarcelles, which is known as "Little Jerusalem," is home to a large Jewish community that emigrated from North Africa in the 1960s.
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#2
Is spontaneous firebombing what happens when you leave a bunch of oily rags or such in your hot attic? I think I remember hearing about that in some safety class once.
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Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
