Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Muslim neighbours force censorship on Paris cafe

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Muslim neighbours force censorship on Paris cafe

    Muslim neighbours force censorship on Paris cafe

    PARIS, March 31, 2006 (AFP) - A gang of young Muslims wielding iron rods has forced a Paris cafe to censor an exhibition of cartoons ridiculing religion, the owners of the establishment said Friday.

    Some 50 drawings by well-known French cartoonists were installed in the Mer à Boire cafe in the working-class Belleville neighbourhood of northeast Paris, as part of an avowedly atheist show entitled 'Neither god nor god'.

    The collection targeted all religions — including Islam — but there were no representations of the prophet Mohammed such as sparked the recent crisis between the West and the Islamic world, according to Marianne who is one of the cafe's three owners.

    "We used to give glasses of water to a group of local boys aged between 10 and 12 who played football across the street. On Tuesday a few came in, flung the water on the ground and accused us of being racists," said Marianne, who did not wish to give her family name.

    "Later more of them came back with sticks and iron rods and tried to smash the pictures. They managed it with a few of them. With the customers we chased them away, but they kept coming back," she said.

    Later the cafe-owners were approached by a group of older youths.

    "They said they did not approve of what the youngsters had done. But what we were doing was unacceptable too. They warned us that if we didn't take down the cartoons they would call in the Muslim Brothers who would burn the cafe down," said Marianne.

    "They kept saying: 'This is our home. You cannot act like this here,'" she said.

    Refusing to dismantle the exhibition, the owners have placed white sheets of paper inscribed with the word 'censored' over the cartoons that were targeted by the gang.

    "To take down the cartoons would have been a surrender. But on the other hand we cannot expose ourselves to this kind of violence. This way you can still see the pictures if you lift the paper," said Marianne.

    One of the cartoons that aroused the wrath of the youths was a bar scene, in which the barman offers a drink to an obviously inebriated man who says "God is great." The caption is: "The sixth pillar of Islam. The bar pillar." In France a "bar pillar" is a barfly or drunk.

    The aim of the exhibition was to poke fun at all religions, according to cartoonists who took part.

    "Putting on this type of show in this place was not in the least a provocation. Unless you think that freedom of expression in itself is a provocation," the cartoonist Charb told Le Parisien newspaper.

    The Belleville neighbourhood of Paris's 20th arrondissement is racially mixed, with a large population of north African origin, but Marianne said there were few outward signs of religious extremism.

    "There are areas near here which do have a reputation for Islamists. But here it's different. These are street gangs for whom religion has become a kind of mark of identity," she said.

    The owners of the Mer à Boire, which means "the sea you can drink" and opened in September, have filed suit with the police.


    http://www.expatica.com/source/site_...story_id=28926
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

  • #2
    Shoot the punks...
    No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
    I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
    even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
    He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

    Comment


    • #3
      Change the topic title and add the word gangs and drop the word neighbours...
      To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by troung
        Change the topic title and add the word gangs and drop the word neighbours...
        Yep, that's all it is.
        No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
        I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
        even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
        He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

        Comment


        • #5
          France will become another India where Moslems can do no wrong!


          "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

          I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

          HAKUNA MATATA

          Comment


          • #6
            They really ought to stop poking fun at religions. It's not about surrendering, its just the nice thing to do.

            Tell a 10-12 year old kid a Yo Momma insult and he'd do the same.

            Comment


            • #7
              You don't get to threaten people's lives and property because somebody makes fun of religion! They fu<king need to understand that. If religious beliefs are placed above mockery then we are in a theocracy, because that means the thoughts and feelings of athiests are of less value than those of religious people. I think religion IS laughable and I laugh at it constantly - except when I get angry because people die for their fairy tales. There: I made fun of religion, does that you give you the right to destroy my house? Also Asim, your comments show that you think that these kids/thugs have a right to take this personally, when it has absofreakinglutly nothing to do with them. French Catholics were not doing this, and according to the article they were making fun of all religions.

              Asim, I understand the desire to try to justify the actions of people you perceive to be of the same kind as yourself, but unless you actually believe what these kids (and the threats of the older ones) did was right, they are not the same kind of people as you.
              Last edited by ZFBoxcar; 03 Apr 06,, 07:32.

              Comment


              • #8
                Asim,

                When I read your posts on religion, I get the impression that you are having such fun to appear to be religious.

                You are entralled by music. Now, does that mean that the Wahabis kill you for that since music is Haram?


                "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

                I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

                HAKUNA MATATA

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by ZFBoxcar
                  If religious beliefs are placed above mockery then we are in a theocracy, because that means the thoughts and feelings of athiests are of less value than those of religious people.
                  exactly.
                  In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility.

                  Leibniz

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Asim Aquil
                    They really ought to stop poking fun at religions. It's not about surrendering, its just the nice thing to do.

                    Tell a 10-12 year old kid a Yo Momma insult and he'd do the same.
                    No, he'd probably just insult yo momma back. What's the excuse for the older teens?
                    "So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Ray
                      Asim,

                      When I read your posts on religion, I get the impression that you are having such fun to appear to be religious.

                      You are entralled by music. Now, does that mean that the Wahabis kill you for that since music is Haram?
                      Actually I got to participate in an inter-uni debate on some similar topics in a week. You guys are good practice.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        They really ought to stop poking fun at religions. It's not about surrendering, its just the nice thing to do.
                        I think the opposite. They should not be silent out of the fear of being killed. Citizens of the free world should not live in fear of being killed for exercising their rights as citizens of the free world. If one doesn't like the freedoms then change things peacefully from the inside or leave.
                        To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          You cannot beget peace, with violence. Insults can be construed as an act of violence in a way.

                          It's like starting off with "Ok we're enemies, now lets talk".

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            You cannot beget peace, with violence. Insults can be construed as an act of violence in a way.

                            It's like starting off with "Ok we're enemies, now lets talk".
                            Insults can only be construed as an act of violence by people who are immature, and in my opinion, pathetic. This certainly does not include most Muslims, as Neo recently made a thread showing that 92% of Pakistanis oppose the violent response to the cartoons. They understand that insults are NOT an act of violence.

                            Comment


                            • #15

                              Ira,

                              If you believe that, then you would also believe that Doomsday was yesterday!
                              Last edited by Ray; 03 Apr 06,, 20:32.


                              "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

                              I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

                              HAKUNA MATATA

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X