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Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Anwar Ibrahim correctly chided France’s Macron on 'Freedom of Expression'

MM Online:

Muslim world needs no lecture from you about free speech, Anwar tells France’s Macron


Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that in arguing for secularism, French president Emmanuel Macron had resorted to demonising and dehumanising Islam rather than engage in discussion, pointing out the dangers of such sweeping misrepresentations lead to a cycle of violence. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 — Freedom of speech is an essential value of Islam and the Muslim world does not need any more lectures about its significance, least of all from those who suffer from Islamophobia, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today.

The Malaysian Opposition leader is the latest Muslim leader to censure French president Emmanuel Macron for his October 2 speech claiming Islam in crisis worldwide while defending France’s secularism and push for the removal of religious influences from education and its public sector.

“Monsieur Macron needs to be aware that freedom of speech is an essential value of Islam,” Anwar said in a strongly-worded statement.


French president Emmanuel Macron 

He said Macron’s defence of “laïcité” — French for secularism — by claiming that Islam is in crisis globally is “offensive” and “unreasonable” because it tars an entire religion and its followers for the “evils” committed by a minority.

He said that in arguing for secularism, Macron had resorted to demonising and dehumanising Islam rather than engage in discussion, pointing out the dangers of such sweeping misrepresentations lead to a cycle of violence.

“No society, ideology or religion is immune from spawning single minded brutality and plunging into barbarism.

“The Muslim World does not need lectures any more than it can tolerate libellous smears and Islamophobic rhetoric from the French President,” Anwar added.

He urged Macron to take responsibility for his “rabblerousing smears” against Islam, pointing to the October 6 killing of French teacher Samuel Paty after the latter showed some students in class caricatures of Prophet Muhammad published by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Anwar acknowledged that Macron is not alone in his skewed view of linking Islam to terrorism even as he said Muslims worldwide too need “to recover and reconnect with a higher vision of Islam”.

However, he said making slurs “does nothing to advance open debate, mutual understanding and common cause against the evil of terrorism”.

The secularism and Islam debate in France has deepened tensions domestically. International relations with some Muslim countries have also been affected.

France recalled its ambassador to Turkey after Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested Macron undergo “mental checks” for his thoughts about Islam and its followers.

***

kt notes:

It was horrifying that in modern times, in a Western country, a teacher was decapitated for his teachings, no matter how blasphemous that lesson might have been to Muslims. We condemn such barbarism.

French teacher Samuel Paty showed some students in his class the notorious caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, previously published by a Norwegian magazine, then the Danish newspapers
Jyllands-Posten in 2005, and eventually the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.


Samuel Paty
 

The reason for the lesson was the European much-treasured 'Freedom of Expression', and in a secular nation like France, or Denmark, etc, nothing was considered taboo or sacrosanct, or so the Europeans claim, which was/is a load of bullshit, hypocritical bullshit at that.

While that hypocrisy doesn't merit decapitating someone, it's sad that on one hand the European bullshit about 'Freedom of Expression' has provocatively incited moronic hotheads to commit a despicable crime, but on the other, some Europeans (and Yanks and Aussies) think showing provocative and abusive caricatures in public of a personality held sacred by another religion is okay.

We need to ask why Carlie Hebdo which prides itself as a courageous take-no-prisoner media in its satirical nose-thumbing at all and sundry was/is in fact such a bloody hypocrite, not daring to criticise or annoy Jewish-Israeli interests, but aiming its big guns at mainly Islamic sensitivities. [I have read of an anti-Arab American-Jewish interests in its activities]. The double standards is amazingly breathtaking.

Yes, why was/is Charlie Hebdo so adamant about being provocative against Muslims, and in that process, encourage Europeans like Samuel Paty to follow likewise, but acts like a mewing pussy when it comes to Jewish matters (not that I want it to abuse the Jews)?

Years ago, Charlie Hebdo's director, the (late) Stephane Charbonnier, pompously claimed that his magazine was not really fuelling the (angry Muslim) fire but rather using its 'freedom of expression' to comment on the news in a satirical way. I just despise such liberal (mis)use of the term 'Freedom of Expression' by hypocrites.


Stéphane Charbonnier
 

In January 2015, after Islamists attacked Charlie Hebdo's office in France (and killed its director Stephane Charbonnier), its editor responded to the French ministerial rebuke: "We do caricatures of everyone, and above all every week, and when we do it with the Prophet, it's called provocation."

'
We do caricatures of everyone ...
'??? Eff-ing Kerbau!

Oh, that thick-skinned double standard hypocritical claim again, again and yet again by those European bullshitting press.

I then wrote: Okay then, can anyone in Charlie Hebdo please explain why it sacked its former cartoonist Siné (real name Maurice Sinet) in 2008 for his cartoon-article on the marriage of Jean Sakorzy, the son of France former president, to Jessica Sebaoun-Darty, a Jewish heiress, after a (obviously) Jewish journalist described Sinet's comments as anti-Semitic.

For more see my post Charlie Hebdo - further Western hypocrisy.


Yes, unfortunately for both Sinet and the French ‘liberté d'expression’, Jessica Sebaoun-Darty was not only a heiress but a Jewish heiress. Sinet’s cheeky words galvanized a journalist to accuse the comment as anti-Semitic. Now, whether Sinet was referring to the heiress' wealth or Jewish heritage was not known but regardless, please tell me, how was it anti-Semitic?

Nonetheless, trust politicians to jump on the bandwagon, where then mayor of Paris and French Minister for Culture immediately seized upon Sinet’s cartoon-article as an anti-Semitic insult.


That was an European salutary lesson that no one must ever question or criticise or even, as in Sinet's case, make a cheeky remark about a Jew regardless of the veracity of the issue (unless it's complimentary or respectful). And examples of those who ignored or were oblivious of this European 'sacred cow' were Prince Harry, David Irving and Ken Livingstone - maybe another time I'll do their stories.

But please, compare Sinet's comment on that marriage to the deliberate vile and abusive insult to Prophet Muhammad by way of the magazine’s cartoons.

The editor of Charlie Hebdo, Phillippe Val, the man who made the highly controversial and inflammatory decision to then re-publish a Danish newspaper's cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed in the name of co-called ‘freedom of the press’ (loud, maniacal laughter but with a feeling of awful nausea) and whose article in 2000 calling Palestinians "non-civilised" resulted in journalist Mona Chollet being sacked after she had protested against that racist abuse, agreed that Sinet’s remark about young Sakorzy was offensive and anti-Semitic and warned the journalist-cartoonist to write a letter of apology or be fired.


well, you can see where his sympathies lie with
recall - he was an editor at Charlie Hebdo

he also called Palestinians "non-civilised" and
he sacked journalist Mona Chollet after she protested against that racist abuse

Naturally Sinet refused, as his rights under the French much cherished ‘liberté d'expression’. He asserted his rights with some rather flamboyant flowery flaming words, as a cartoonist would, that he would rather "cut his own balls off". He was promptly fired by Charlie Hebdo, the so-called paragon of freedom of expression.

Though Sinet successfully sued the publisher and won a 90,000 euro court judgment for wrongful job termination, I need to ask: Was Sinet’s sacking for standing by his cartoon-article the ideals that Charlie Hebdo fought to maintain?

Incidentally, Sinet was also threatened by the Jewish Defence League (JDL), which posted on its website "20 centimetres of stainless steel in the gut, that should teach the bastard to stop and think". The JDL had been considered by the FBI as the second most active terrorist group.


Thus Charlie Hebdo's publishing "sin" was not so much in its claimed pompous right to exercise the European's so-called bull about "freedom of expression" if even in an unnecessary provocative manner, but in its double standard hypocrisy in sacking its former cartoonist Maurice Sinet for a mere seemingly innocuous comment about the wedding, where Sinet said of the young bridegroom: "He'll go a long way in life, this lad!"

"Freedom of expression"? As we Malaysians would say: Podah!

Now, couldn't Teacher (late) Samuel Paty teach that, showing how Charlie Hebdo's director the (late) Stephane Charbonnier abused the 'Freedom of Expression' of its cartoonist Siné (Maurice Sinet) by sacking him when he refused then to publish an apology to the (obviously powerful) bridal couple, or how David Irving was jailed in Austria for merely questioning the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust, etc etc. Why must Monsieur Paty used the fabricated disrespectful caricatures of a religious prophet?

There are many more examples of European hypocrisy and double standards on this issue. I thus support Anwar Ibrahim's chiding of Macron, the French President.


25 comments:

  1. Yes those French Fries should emulate the Freedom of Expression like in Malaysia, just ask Ronnie Liu...ha ha ha....

    And KT keep having to censor tweets from his blog for what reason I wonder.....since we have FOE.......

    ReplyDelete
  2. They don't dare to comment on the Jews yet uphold the freedom of expression.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i rarely want to touch on this subject bec i might be very wrong, as a chinese that hv no intention to go back china n hv some grasp of china history, millions dead seem pretty normal.

      i alwasy deem the holocaust denial law more like a confession, repentance, n redemption rather than look at it from the realm of speech freedom, in this part of history, the jew was clearly the victim. at least the european show heart for their victim.

      Delete
    2. AGAIN, u Chinese?

      With many twisted grasp of China history!

      Jews were the victims of the racial prejudices, some induced by their culture & religions, many r just convenient tool to achieve sopo aims of the prevailing era by scheming evil men.

      The Europeans, people & countries, r just bearing on their bleeding-hearted guilts to pamper the Zionists who use those WWII sufferings as their current political capital.

      Holocaust denial law has passed its shelf life of just catering to the Jews. It should be replaced by a modern universal outlook based on circumstances than historical happenstance!

      Mfer, a FREE lesson for yr chronic CCP hatred based on yr meme-ed 'chinese' apologist fart! But I wouldn't count on u to understand!

      Delete
    3. chinese never hv such privilege when millions perished, instead all they got is a ccp govt that thanks the japs for the invasion, n some chinese even thick face wanna match jew.

      this law is abt humanitarian n sense of guilt, its a western concept most dun appreciate, n no one make use of this law to stay in power, to protect the privilege tribe, n to incarcerate the dissent, i agree its not modern n universal like those hk security law.

      Delete
    4. "Chinese never hv such privilege when millions perished"

      !!!

      犬养mfer, u wrote WRONGLY.

      Many millions of Chinese have been saved with the benevolent approaches of the CCP central govt.

      Americans never have such privilege when millions perished under covid-19.

      Ooop… don't forget about clearing those 台毒 farts, too, about thanking the japs for the invasion to kick the useless kmt out from China.

      U known humanitarian & sense of guilt?

      Talk to yr 蔡妹妹 about her stealth herd immunization for the Formosa katak lah. Those katak r going to have a genocidal awakening comes this winter. Where is that humanitarian take?

      Don't forget to revisit all yr CCP lies vis-a-vis yr f*cked sense of guilt too! Memang tak malu!

      Western concept indeed - for practicing old folk home triage, unethical challenging trial - that mfer, like u, is so full of praises for!

      Who r u to shout on behalf of the HKers? At least the new HK security law has brought some sense of peace & sense into HK. Can u shake a toad tear for those dismissed dragon air employees - many of them r known HK 废青.

      Delete
  3. I have supported Anwar Ibrahim through thick and thin, for 20 years.

    But there is always a sneaky suspicion he has not shed his Islamist extremist past.

    Macron was speaking the truth, and the truth hurts.

    ReplyDelete
  4. SITI KASSIM ON ANWAR IBRAHIM

    This is the Reformasi icon? The guy who was part of the corrupt system until he went for the top job, lost the power struggle and was punished by the same system he had used .. and than started singing REFORMASI! Where was his Reformasi when he was the 2nd most powerful man in Government.

    Oh ya... I will never forget. Changing our Bahasa Malaysia into Bahasa Melayu Baku. Pulling down crosses? And Islamisation of education and administration for his penerapan nilai-nilai so called Islam that got us to the Talibanisation that we are today.

    And he sure can't keep that mouth shut trying to be the champion for everyone at everytime convenient.

    France and the French and their President and their secular society has taken on more Muslim refugees, care for them and gave these destitute Muslims a better life. And you dare to call Macron Islamophobic. Look in the mirror. Your leopard spots has never changed.

    Where were you when terrorism were being committed on French soil by those who called themselves Muslims?. Where were you when the teacher was beheaded in the name of the religion.

    Islam is in crisis. That is the truth. Take your head out of the sand. And it is people like you and Hadi that has no self awareness to reflect that we need reformation in how our own people and its clergy class interpret and teach the religion that has brought disrepute to Islam.

    Please go away already. You are a waste of space.

    Malaysia needs a leader who comes out with courage and say "We are here to build a Nation, not a race or a religion". Not someone like you.

    Remember that. You are no statesman. Just a garden variety power hungry race and religion-using politician.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Siti Kassim makes a good point. France has taken in millions of Muslims from North Africa and elsewhere, from their colonies and even not from their colonies, and gave them full French citizenship. How many non-Muslims have we allowed in and given full citizenship?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Many Vietnamese who escaped their war were given full French citizenship. How many Vietnamese refugees did we give citizenship to?

    ReplyDelete
  7. And Anwar has not commented if our treatment of Shias is Freedom of Expression of their faith.

    ReplyDelete
  8. i dun know much abt islam freedom, but i am pretty sure muslim hv no freedom of speech, similar to zombie live under ccp.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. U know NOTHING! & yet keep perpetuating lies.

      U r no better than those Formosa katak been pied-piped to their doom w/o knowing the truth!

      At least those 'zombies' under CCP have their lamenting 民族复兴 vision fulfilled.

      What have u & those 台毒 katak?

      Slow cooking under warm water until well done!

      Delete
    2. u mean a millionaire can kiss ass better than a believer? i can agree.

      Delete
    3. Now u talk some senses!

      Mfer, have u looked closely within yr 台毒 dickheads before u penned that statement?

      Guess not!

      Delete
    4. i always tok sense, its a fact ccp chinese kiss ass much much better.

      Delete
    5. Of course lah that sense that infused with katak farts!

      Haven't I said so?

      BTW, u keep mentioning kiss ass. Is that yr favour past time while mixing with 台毒 dickheads? Can't hide that disgusting 口馋, right?

      Delete
    6. Try comparing Emperor to Winnie the Pooh in CCP-Land, and see whether there is Freedom of Speech.

      Delete
    7. Old moneyed mfer, why just farted with one-liner statement?

      Give proofs lah.

      Don't just swallow that fabricated shit from BBC lah. Is what coming out from that f*cked mouthpiece of auntie pommie a gospel to u?

      Delete
    8. Yeah like how Julian Assange and Edward Snowden and the likes of Chelsea Manning having to hide, run for their lives in the land of that so-called Land of FreeDumb of Speech, hehehe

      Continue to hisap kotek oang putih, jangan tak hisap tau, hisap kuat kuat, wa ka ka ka

      Delete
  9. Why so many foreigners want to be Busybodies interfering in France's internal affairs ?

    Macron was saying - on French domestic matters - within France borders, their Muslim community has no veto power over France's robustly secular creed.

    People write insulting things about Christianity and Judaism as well - no repercussions as long as they do not advocate or instigate violence.

    So France cannot allow Muslims within their borders to violently exercise a veto over that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why WhiteCockSucker like you, who is a foreigner as far as China is concerned, want to be Busybodies interfering in China's internal affairs ? Look into a mirror, Hisap Kotek Oang Putih, LOL

      Delete
  10. How many Rohinyas have we given full citizenship to? Wasn't it just a few months ago that we were forcing their boats back into the Andaman sea? They are Muslims too no? And yet we don't even provide basic education to their children.

    France accepts all and sundry. Even Chechans who behead teachers.

    ReplyDelete
  11. In a country where imaginary crucifixes and crosses on buildings are stirred up as anti-Islam who are we to criticize France when they are talking about a be-heading?

    Did the Pope all up our Ambassador to the Vatican? Did Christians in Malaysia organize even a small protest?

    Did Wee KHAT Siong raise a poop or peep? Ha ha ha......no he is too busy catching beer drinkers after accepting the RM40 million TARUC matching grant from the Twit of a Twat Finance Minister.

    QUOTE
    Stir over Langkawi housing project's cross-shaped air wells prompts developer to repaint them

    DEC 29, 2015

    ALOR SETAR - A Langkawi housing project's rooftop air wells that resembled crosses from afar has prompted the project's developer to paint over the structures after they created a stir on social media, Malaysia's The Star reported.

    The project's developer had begun repainting the structures at the project in Kelibang, near Kuah in Langkawi, which resembled crucifixes on Monday (Dec 28), the Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association (Rehda) said.

    Photos of the roof features hit social media on Dec 22, with some Muslims expressing their displeasure, while others brushed it off as a harmless coincidence.
    UNQUOTE

    QUOTE
    Chinese character for royal, not a cross, says developer on building lights
    Looi Sue-Chern
    14 Jan 2019

    The developer says when lights on the top floor and at the car park level are switched on, the Chinese character “wang” (王), which means “king” or “royal”, will be visible. – Facebook January 14, 2019.

    THE lights at the Grace Residence building in Jelutong, Penang, were never meant to show the sign of the cross or have any religious meaning.

    A spokesman from developer Nova Mulia Development Sdn Bhd said the lights at the apartment, which was near 90% completion, were being tested.
    UNQUOTE

    ReplyDelete
  12. Don't meddle with "secular" France. Worry instead of Malaysia becoming intolerant.

    Here Muslims "Fear" a "Magical" Cross....?

    QUOTE
    About 50 residents gathered outside a new church in Taman Medan, Petaling Jaya on Sunday to demand that the cross affixed to the house of worship be removed as it was "challenging Islam", The Star Online reported today.

    According to the news portal, the locals demonstrated peacefully during the church service at 10am for the cross to be taken down.

    The protesters said the presence of a cross in a Muslim-majority area posed a challenge to the religion and could sway the faith of the youth, The Star Online reported.

    The news portal reported a village leader later pacified the group and spoke with the church's priest on their behalf.

    "After meeting with the priest, the church agreed to take down the cross by next Sunday. If they have the authority to run, we cannot stop it," the group's leader, Abdullah Abu Bakar, was quoted as saying.

    "But we ask out of concern, being a Malay area, that they take down the cross."

    Police reportedly arrived on the scene at 10:30am to manage the crowd, just as the Sunday service was ending.

    The Star Online reported that the cross was taken down by church leaders a few hours after the protest.

    The Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) said the protest was politically-motivated to stir up religious tensions in Selangor.

    CCM general-secretary Reverend Dr Hermen Shastri, in condemning the protest, said that the council was not surprised that such an incident had taken place yet again in the state, which is ruled by the federal opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat.

    "It is obvious that there is a political agenda behind such acts from certain quarters, who are out to instigate and increase inter-religious tensions in the state," he said in a statement on Monday. "The CCM wishes to register its discontent and displeasure, at the way a small group of demonstrators at Taman Medan had taken the law into their own hands, by disrupting the worship of a church and making religiously insensitive demands that pertain to the sacred symbol of Christians.”

    The council also called on authorities "to take firm measures against anyone, who seeks to disrupt the worship of others, and, seek to act above the law by imposing their religious views, upon people of other faiths, by show of mob force".

    This was not the first time a protest was held against a church. On November 2, 2014, Muslim NGO, Pertubuhan Sahabat organized a demonstration to protest the construction of the four-storey Praise Emmanuel Assembly church in Petaling Jaya.

    The NGO said there were already three churches in the vicinity, adding it was not appropriate in a neighborhood that counted 70 percent of its residents as Muslim.

    The group had demonstrated at the church building site, saying that building a four-storey church in the area would be an insult to the Muslims living there.
    UNQUOTE

    ReplyDelete