Moving Off The Movie

France enters the ring against the Muslim world:

PARIS — A French satirical magazine on Wednesday published a series of cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad, setting off a new wave of outrage among Muslims and condemnation from French leaders amid widening unrest over an amateur video that has provoked violence throughout the Islamic world.

The illustrations, some of which depicted Muhammad naked, hit newsstands across the country on Wednesday and were met with swift rebuke from the government of François Hollande, which had earlier urged the magazine, Charlie Hebdo, not to publish the cartoons, particularly in the current tense environment.

The foreign minister stands up proudly for free expresson in France, when the time is right:

“In France, there is a principle of freedom of expression, which should not be undermined,” Laurent Fabius, the foreign minister, said in a French radio interview. “In the present context, given this absurd video that has been aired, strong emotions have been awakened in many Muslim countries. Is it really sensible or intelligent to pour oil on the fire?”

In an interview on France Info radio, Mr. Fabius announced that, as a precaution, France planned to close its embassies in 20 countries on Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, which has become an occasion for many to express their anger although “no threats have been made against any institutions.” A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the closures would affect French consulates, cultural centers and schools as well.

The BBC has more.

Comments

[Janet]

Thank God for French satirical magazines! Standing up for Free Speech...tres bon.

[NK]

I think the French Foreign Minister would have been better served to "fart in the general direction" of Mecca, and left it at that.

[Cecil Turner]

Seems to me that if Islamists are going to riot/murder/whatever every time someone anywhere in the world publishes something that offends, the logical answer is to publish reams of offensive material daily and wear them out.

The alternative--to ensure nobody says or writes anything that might offend the wildest-eyed Imam--is both impractical and counterproductive.

[Captain Hate]

It's pretty damn bad when the French have more spine in standing up to these vermin and their perverted "prophet" than the quislings in the State Dept. Maybe it was the Mickey Rourke movies...

[Janet]

Amen, Cecil!

[NK]

CH-- certainly the French Mag has more spine, the French foreign Minister not so much. In any event, comparing anyone's courage against Sharia to the the lying surrenderist bastards at the JEF State Department is a low standard, n'estce pas?

[narciso]

And he's a French Socialist to boot, speaking of films, where is the vidoe footage of the supposed protests in front of the Benghazi consulates, this strikes me too much like 'Rules of Engagement' presciently set in Yemen,

[narciso]

I like Bruce Greenwood for the Michael vickers role, in the LUN

[DebinNC]

The BBC link makes clear that the magazine is an religious equal-opportunity offender. They're bravely refusing to make an exception for Muslims.

Magazine editor Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier said earlier: "I'm not asking strict Muslims to read Charlie Hebdo [magazine], just like I wouldn't go to a mosque to listen to speeches that go against everything I believe." In November, the magazine's offices in Paris were gutted by a petrol bomb attack after it named the Prophet Muhammad as its "editor-in-chief" for an issue.

That's an actual, not pretend, "gutsy call".

[James D.]

Why does seemingly every news article now use "the Prophet Muhammad"?

They don't seem to write/talk that way about any other religions. I don't see many references in thenews to "His Holiness the Pope" or to "Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ", etc.

I mean, I know the answer, but it's still worth making the point.

[Clarice]

cecil, right on. Honestly, I was thinking of a satiric Mohammed poster on my front lawn, however, my neighbor, a Kenyan diplomat is Moslem.....and down the block is the Malaysian Embassy.

I guess we'll have to do it in print.

[narciso]

While Letterman kibitzes;

http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/NI18Aa01.html

[Captain Hate]

Why does seemingly every news article now use "the Prophet Muhammad"?

Jeez, I don't know; why don't one of you twitter people ask the wonderful JAKE TAPPER? Everybody tells me that he's a GREAT GUY and somebody we can work with who really cuts through all the MFM bull. Tweet Mr Wonderful and I'm sure you'll get an honest answer.

[narciso]

Is he a career diplomat, or more like a Kibaki partisan, clarice.

[narciso]

Speaking of spineless, McMahon and Brown, refuse to get on the ball,

[maryrose]

The first debate is key to exposing all the false statements of Oblammy and company. Within every answer Romney gives must be a revelation of a particular Obama untruth and how the media are lying and covering up for him. Also a jibe about how a party with Jay-z and Beyonce and going on Letterman talking about being naked is very unpresidential and disgusting. Is he going to meet with Netanyahu or not? I mean that is part of his job.

[Captain Hate]

Well we knew that Jerry Sandusky would still be a free man if it depended on Scotty Centerfold doing the right thing.

[narciso]

You would think being up against Madame Lafarge, would give a clue, but that would be asking too much.

[Jim Eagle]

narciso,

How could David write that spot-on analysis and forget Turkey?

[Janet]

Great point, James D.

[maryrose]

James:
Using the word Prophet is to legitimize their war on the West. People need to look at history. Review Charles Martel and the Moorish invasion of Spain. We have to crush the terrorists. Unfortunately Obama is soft on terrorism. If anything this will delay the movie about Obama icing Osama. Oh but wait , the Navy Seals did that. Obama just sat in a chair, shaking.

[Captain Hate]

Btw Pinette has weighed in that if Mitt loses it proves that the Tea Party has ruined the GOP.

[narciso]

Look I don't think it's proper to be gratuitous in the treatment of any religion, that is why Maher sticks in my craw, and Rushdie should know better. But
Tom Holland doesn't garner any sympathy for his admittedly revisionist but scholarly take on the subject,

[Janet]

Okay...I sent the tweet to Tapper, Captain. I don't know what the hell I'm doing on twitter though.

[Clarice]

I don't know, narciso. He seems a trifle paranoid and we've had little contact. His predecessors were quite different for the most part.

[Captain Hate]

Thanks Janet; I'll await any response you get other than him ignoring or blocking you.

Speaking of Rushdie: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444709004577651734257991936.html?mod=WSJ_Books_LS_Books_8

[Janet]

Obama just sat in a chair, shaking.

Squatted in a chair might be truer. Hah!

He looks so Photoshopped in to me...

[DebinNC]

UPI relates BOzo's schedule today: daily briefing, meeting w/Hillary, and this:

"Receive the credentials from foreign ambassadors recently posted in Washington in a ceremony marking the formal start of an ambassador's service in Washington"

Yet, the WH site re BOzo's schedule today says only "no public events". Is the word "ambassador" anathema now? They'd rather sacrifice the politically crucial "receives daily briefing" notation than mention this foreign ambassadors ceremony, fearing Amb. Stevens would immediately come to mind? Very telling.

[narciso]

If you notice, Jib, he does mention Turkey, he just doesn't think they will be a dominant position.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

--the logical answer is to publish reams of offensive material daily and wear them out--

If we had an effective intelligence service, oh yeah, and a collective pair of state testes, we'd be publishing reams of offensive material and attributing it to various islamic subsets and different ethnicities so they'd be burning each others embassies and murdering their own frickin envoys and mbassadors.

[Appalled]

Cecil:

The alternative--to ensure nobody says or writes anything that might offend the wildest-eyed Imam--is both impractical and counterproductive.

OK. We have a choice between going out and insulting a religion in a non-substantive way, reminiscent of mooning the crabby deacon at the church, or going into censorship mode. Straw man? False choice? There's really no other option?

How about this -- we don't endorse people who feel the need to gratutously insult a religion, but we don't go around tossing them in jail, or harassing them either.

What strikes me about this sort of thing is that it is parallel to the idea of sticking a mosque at Ground Zero. Certainly, we live in a country where you can do that, and we're glad about it. But we sure don't have to like, or support the act, and we recognize the right of folks to be upset about it. (Rioting and muder over such stuff, however, is the kind of response that makes the Middle East the charming cesspool that it is).

[narciso]

No, Appalled, the GZ Mosque, as with the Blue Mosque, and Cordoba is a whole other message, Rushdie was gratuitous as well as Nakoula, who should as a Copt have known better to be so provocative without a point.

[Cecil Turner]

OK. We have a choice between going out and insulting a religion in a non-substantive way, reminiscent of mooning the crabby deacon at the church, or going into censorship mode. Straw man? False choice? There's really no other option?

Well, I suppose we can watch our embassies burn, and just put up with the periodic mayhem.

How about this -- we don't endorse people who feel the need to gratutously insult a religion, but we don't go around tossing them in jail, or harassing them either.

I'd point out we are currently going a lot farther down the "censorship" road:

General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, called a Florida pastor on Wednesday and asked him to withdraw his support for a film whose portrayal of the Prophet Mohammad has been linked to violent protests - including one that ended with the death of America's envoy to Libya.

I'd also point out that as a solution, it leaves something to be desired.

[Janet]

Dennis Miller comes up with another great idea. One of his callers suggested flags for burning made from marijuana to mellow the crowd....now Dennis suggests effigy pinatas that drop "drug" candy. Oh yeah...thinkin' outside the box!

[Extraneus]

That stupid war-room pic makes us look so weak. The whole team, staring in awe at the execution of an old has-been, holed up in his lair with his four hags. I could see if he had an army of bodyguards, but no. Just an old bearded dude trying to get his TV antenna working.

They couldn't even take him alive, and the whole world gets to see the war-room pic.

I wonder what Putin or the Chinese thought of that pic. Actually, I don't wonder. I'm pretty sure I know.

[narciso]

Well we know how Putin does it, he blows up the likes of Zandabichev, who at last recollection, was a political leader, in the middle of Doha, with a car bomb, with practically little attention.

Volodya does say he appreciates Mitt's sincerity.

[Clarice]

bgates early morning masterpiece has been instalaunched.

[narciso]

Well they do need a touch of Bryan Mills, the CIA guy from 'Taken'

[Appalled]

Cecil:

Part of being engaged with the Middle East is putting up with the periodic mayhem. We have interests there -- we really don't have a choice. What we should NOT do is kowtow to the mayhem, like Obama has done (and gotten away with, because our media can't seem to focus on anything that does not emphasize the incompetent evil that is Mitt Romney)

Of course, Obama has been much of the problem here, as his policy has been to concentrate on pretexts, and not pay any attention to the simple fact that political Islam does not like the United States (probably because it does not much like Modernity), and will never like the United States, and will always find the US a convenient scapegoat from time to time.

[DebinNC]

Not only 'launched, but bgates' masterful channeling of Obama is designated blog comment of the day and deservedly so.

[Melinda Romanoff]

breaking- 4 Injured in blast a Kosher Grocery in Paris.

[NK]

Congrats Bgates!

[narciso]

The Brits had sporadic problems in their relations in the NorthWest Frontier, the various incursions into Afghanistan, the whole Governor General Mayo matter in 1871,
Charles Allen's 'Warriors of god' sums it up, but the arrival of Wahhabism made it worse, in many ways Kim Philby is a piker compared to his pop, in terms of treachery.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Congrats, bgates!

[centralcal]

Wonderful comment, bgates and congrats on the well-deserved attention it got.

[narciso]

Congrats Bgates

[DebinNC]

Sheesh! French Jewish group blaming CA guy's "movie" for kosher store attack.

[Forbes]

When did the NYTimes or the media in general start referring to Muhammad (Mohammed, Mohammad?) as the Prophet Muhammad? This seems like a recent development. Do they ever refer to Jesus as Lord Jesus Christ?

[centralcal]

Jennifer Rubin writes today about all of the media (right and left) failures at predicting Romney's doom.

I will only excerpt her close, because I think it is worthwhile to read the full (short and sweet) column in full:

So when the media mavens on the right and left are in hysterics over Romney’s 47 percent remarks, think how accurate the media’s judgment has been. Consider whether the pundits think everything is a disaster for Romney and just don’t like him.

You might say the biggest inaccuracy the media have come up with is the notion that they matter. They have proved to be more tone deaf and irrelevant than most conservatives even imagined.

[Jimmy the Dhimmi]

Forbes, please show due respect to Islam. A certain amount of respect is due people with bombs.

[Jim,MtnViewCA,USA]

"Pinette has weighed in that if Mitt loses it proves that the Tea Party has ruined the GOP."

The Repub Party is quite capable of ruining itself, thank you very much. :)
Seriously, no one is allowed to call for reduced spending? What a crock.

[peter]

Extraneous wrote:
That stupid war-room pic makes us look so weak. The whole team, staring in awe at the execution of an old has-been, holed up in his lair with his four hags. I could see if he had an army of bodyguards, but no. Just an old bearded dude trying to get his TV antenna working.

They couldn't even take him alive, and the whole world gets to see the war-room pic.

I wonder what Putin or the Chinese thought of that pic. Actually, I don't wonder. I'm pretty sure I know. (end quote.)

Not only that but since that time they have managed to off several of the Seals and captured one of our stealth helicopters.

[Extraneus]

And didn't they just take out 6 Harriers?

Yup.

[cathyf]

bgates early morning masterpiece has been instalaunched.

Do I get to claim credit for that? I emailed Insty at 9:43 CDT -- did anyone else send it in first?

[Clarice]

Prof Jacobson on Islam "By the way, in what other religion are the faithful more likely to riot after attending services?"

[Clarice]

peter, as far as I know they were staring at a blank screen because there was no live feed available as we learned later.

[MarkO]

A blank screen? Obama thought he was looking in a mirror.

[Jim Eagle]

Shouldn't that be an "empty" screen?

[JM Hanes]

JiB:

"Shouldn't that be an "empty" screen?"

LOL! Reminds me of the empty Oval Office desk that makes Obama look so small when he actually sits at it.

[Cecil Turner]

Part of being engaged with the Middle East is putting up with the periodic mayhem.

Is turnabout no longer fair play? ANd speaking as a former tactics guy, this is just too easy.

And didn't they just take out 6 Harriers?

Actually, it's 8. And the Squadron CO.

[Janet]

Here is the cartoon - at Weasel Zippers

[Neo]

Tom Friedman has a rare moment of lucidity:

I read several such comments from the rioters in the press last week, and I have a big problem with them. I don’t like to see anyone’s faith insulted, but we need to make two things very clear — more clear than President Obama’s team has made them. One is that an insult — even one as stupid and ugly as the anti-Islam video on YouTube that started all of this — does not entitle people to go out and attack embassies and kill innocent diplomats. That is not how a proper self-governing people behave. There is no excuse for it. It is shameful. And, second, before demanding an apology from our president, Mr. Ali and the young Egyptians, Tunisians, Libyans, Yemenis, Pakistanis, Afghans and Sudanese who have been taking to the streets might want to look in the mirror — or just turn on their own televisions. They might want to look at the chauvinistic bile that is pumped out by some of their own media — on satellite television stations and Web sites or sold in sidewalk bookstores outside of mosques — insulting Shiites, Jews, Christians, Sufis and anyone else who is not a Sunni, or fundamentalist, Muslim. There are people in their countries for whom hating “the other” has become a source of identity and a collective excuse for failing to realize their own potential.

[furniture movers chicago]

Really good blog, this is very similar to a site that I have. Please check it out sometime and feel free to leave me a comenet on it and tell me what you think. Im always looking for feedback.