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| Africa North |
| Moroccan pharmacies threatened over cross symbols |
| 2010-08-26 |
| [Magharebia] A self-proclaimed "lover of al-Qaeda and Jihad" has given Moroccan pharmacy owners one month to remove cross symbols from storefronts or else face beheading. "In 2009, crusade France lured owners of pharmacies with financial benefits and discounts in medications in return for placing the green cross along the green crescent," said a letter published in late July by several online forums. "We demand you remove the crosses off the façades of your pharmacies and to respect our religion," the web threat continued. "Forewarned is forearmed," the unnamed writer said. "We give you and those who work with you an interval of one month to return to your true nature and nation." The deadline expires August 28th. Morocco has not issued an official response to the online ultimatum. Communication Minister Khalid Naciri on August 17th told Magharebia that "the government can't issue reactions to each and every threat posted on the internet". For his part, Laghdaf El Ghaouti, the head of Morocco's General Union of Pharmacists and Health Professionals, said that the internet threat is wrong on several counts. For one, the cross symbol has been used in Morocco for longer than the single year claimed by the web writer. "This sign is the symbol of pharmacy worldwide and doesn't have anything to do with the Christian cross," he also noted. "There is no relation between the dealings of pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies and crusade activities," he said. "The logic of trade is the only thing that governs these dealings." Ahmed Quechtar, a member of the Moroccan Association of Pharmacists agreed with El Ghaouti, stating that "the placement of the cross on the façades of pharmacies is not a deliberate thing, and it surely doesn't have a certain background". "Pharmacists graduating from Moroccan faculties understand the difference between the crescent and cross," Quechtar added. Another pharmacist in the city of Salé told Magharebia that the allegations made by the author of the message are completely untrue: "France doesn't intervene in the work of Moroccan pharmacists, who are independent and belong to independent professional entities." "The placement of the cross is a tradition we inherited from France," he explained. "The saying that France gives discounts to pharmacists in Morocco is a false claim, given that those pharmacists deal in a direct way with Moroccan pharmaceutical companies. Morocco produces about 85% of its needs of medications. In addition, Morocco is considered a pioneering country in the field of pharmaceuticals and regulation of the pharmacist profession." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 We demand you remove the crosses off the façades of your pharmacies and to respect our religion. And they also demand we build a mosque on the graves of 3,000 of our countrymen to be "tolerant". I'm just about ready to reply with a hail of bombs for all Islamic goat fuckers. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2010-08-26 16:32 |
| #6 Doc, if the head shot was not fatal, the armed perp was potentially still a threat, whether on the ground or not. If it was fatal, then the pharmacist would be guilty of desecration of a corpse, not manslaughter. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2010-08-26 14:55 |
| #5 Jennings said her son will never have a chance to prove his innocence. When you show up with a gun to commit a robbery, it's premeditation. The gun makes it a felony. Bottom line, the 'son' gave a rats ass about any other human being other than himself. Mom's like this have loyalty only to their offspring and to hell with everyone else. In basically any other society in history, she as a minimum would be shunned to the extent as to be driven from the community. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-08-26 14:11 |
| #4 I read that article, Moose. Once the perp is on the ground and harmless you're supposed to stop shooting. Seems like 'Antwun' would be on the ground if the first shot was in the head. Then again, maybe he was a cyborg. But if he was on the ground, the pharmacist had no call to go back, get another gun, and blast him again. That to me sounds like manslaughter. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2010-08-26 13:10 |
| #3 Arrest MAMA as Accomplice before and after the fact, obviously she thinks armed robbery is OK if her little spawn does it. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2010-08-26 13:02 |
| #2 I was just reading about a US pharmacist who was threatened by a couple of armed robbers, and positively ventilated one of them, an armed 16 year old boy, with the pharmacist's two handguns. The article is amusing. The armed robbers Mama is saying that her robber-boy was a "hero". Investigators said Ersland knocked Parker to the ground with one shot to the head, grabbed a different weapon and fired five more shots into his chest and abdomen. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-08-26 10:06 |
| #1 "we also demand you only distribute medicines developed by Islamist scientists" /that'll kill em |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-08-26 07:51 |