French arrests raise question: Is free speech for all?

[webfact]

French arrests raise question: Is free speech for all?
By JILL LAWLESS

LONDON (AP) — When cartoonists at a French publication that had poked fun at the Prophet Muhammad were shot dead, millions around the world felt it as an attack on freedom of speech.

Since the rampage that left four dead at a kosher supermarket and 12 at the Charlie Hebdo offices, French authorities have arrested dozens of people — including a comedian — for appearing to praise the terrorists or encourage more attacks.

That has unleashed accusations of a double standard, in which free speech applies to those who mock Islam while Muslims are penalized for expressing their own provocative views. Many Muslims complain that France aggressively prosecutes anti-Semitic slurs, but that they are not protected from similar racist speech.

French police have arrested more than 70 people since the attacks for allegedly defending or glorifying terrorism. The most famous is comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, charged over a Facebook post saying "I feel like Charlie Coulibaly" — a merger of the names of magazine Charlie Hebdo and Amedy Coulibaly, the attacker who killed four hostages at the supermarket. The comic also has repeatedly been prosecuted for anti-Semitism.

Dieudonne later suggested he was being silenced by free-speech hypocrisy. "You consider me like Amedy Coulibaly when I am no different from Charlie," he wrote in an open letter to French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

Many countries have laws limiting free speech, and on paper most hate-speech rules do not discriminate against any particular faith or group. In Britain, recent prosecutions include a white supremacist convicted of sending a threatening anti-Semitic tweet to a lawmaker; a Muslim teenager tried for posting on Facebook that "all soldiers should die and go to hell"; and a 22-year-old man jailed for posting anti-Muslim comments on Facebook after two al-Qaida-inspired attackers murdered soldier Lee Rigby.

French law bans promoting racial or religious hatred, as well as inciting or defending terrorism or crimes against humanity — a line that prosecutors say Dieudonne's remarks crossed.

Blasphemy, in contrast, is not illegal in France, so Charlie Hebdo's mockery of religion is regarded differently.

But the line between religious satire and hate speech is not always clear, and Charlie Hebdo was sued by Muslim groups for "publicly abusing a group of people because of their religion" over cartoons it ran in 2006. The paper was acquitted, with the court ruling that the cartoons took aim at extremists, not Islam.

And Muslims are not the only ones to have taken offense at the paper. For example, Charlie Hebdo also has been sued by Roman Catholic groups. Defenders of Charlie Hebdo argue that the cartoonists are not motivated by hatred or a desire to spread discrimination when they make fun of religion.

The latest French arrests have been criticized by Amnesty International, which has expressed concern about a new French law that permits sentences of up to seven years in prison for defending or inciting terrorism.

The human rights group says some prosecutions have been excessive, including that of a drunk man who praised Paris attackers the Kouachi brothers and told police: "I hope you will be next." He was sentenced to four years in prison.

"You have a French society that considers, not unjustly, that freedom of expression itself has come under attack," said Amnesty Europe Director John Dalhuisen. "You have to attack the criminals, but not in a way that undermines the idea."

John Keane, an Australian political scientist who has studied the history of Islam in Europe, said the arrests add to a widespread perception among Muslims that "the satirizing of Jewish people and the insult of Jewish people is not permitted under French law, and yet that same principle, for the moment, does not apply to Muslims."

Despite that perception of a double standard, Europe's Muslim and Jewish communities feel a common anxiety in the wake of the Paris attacks that authorities are not doing enough to protect them or counter hatred.

Fiyaz Mughal, director of a British project called Tell Mama that monitors anti-Muslim incidents, said he had sensed "cumulative fear growing in the Muslim communities" ever since the killing of soldier Lee Rigby on a suburban London street in 2013, with attacks on mosques and Islamic centers and a rising volume of abuse on social media. Another spike in abuse followed the Paris attacks.

"The language is moving from general anti-Islamic, anti-Muslim rhetoric to more targeted threat rhetoric," he said, and urged Facebook and Twitter to respond more quickly to complaints about hateful posts.

Jonathan Sacerdoti of Britain's Campaign Against Anti-Semitism said many British Jews feared that hatred against them was on the rise, and felt hate speech laws were not being applied firmly enough.

He said that during protests against Israel's Gaza war last year, some demonstrators held banners saying "Hitler was right" and "Hitler should have finished the job."

"These aren't examples of legitimate debate," Sacerdoti said. "These are examples of hate speech ... that made some Jewish people on the streets of London feel afraid."

The two communities may have similar fears, but they occupy different positions in European societies, and have widely differing views of the way they are treated.

Jewish communities in Britain and elsewhere have been established for centuries. The shaming example of the Holocaust has helped spur European governments to denounce anti-Semitism and work to ensure such genocide never happens again. In several European countries, including France, denying the Holocaust is a crime.

Muslims arrived in large numbers more recently, and often tend to be poorer than the national average. Many Muslims feel they are unfairly blamed for terrorist acts by extremists.

Keane said many Muslims feel they "are treated as second-class citizens."

Jonathan Romain, a British Reform rabbi and commentator on ethical issues, said he sympathized with Muslim communities, who have had to adapt over recent decades to living in European countries where their faith is in a minority.

"Jews have had practice of that for 2,000 years," he said.

Some Muslims believe they can learn from the Jewish community how to counter anti-Islamic attacks. Tell Mama is modeled on the work of the Community Security Trust, a Jewish charity that monitors and combats anti-Semitism.

"The Jewish community has been far more vocal and far more organized," Mughal said.

"The best form of defeating hate is speaking and socially organizing. The Muslim community is in disarray in terms of its leadership, its messaging."

Mughal sees signs of hope in the same place he often finds hate — online.

When a commentator on Fox News said Birmingham, England's second-largest city, was "totally Muslim," British Muslims and non-Muslims united in satire. Soon a Twitter campaign under the hashtag #foxnewsfacts was offering comically bogus snippets of information: a photo of hajj pilgrims labeled as the crowd at a local soccer match, a Mecca-brand bingo hall as proof of Islamic domination, a picture of Birmingham's BT tower presented as the city's "main minaret."

Mughal said it was an example of "communities coming together and having a laugh about stupidity, but also about some of the sensitive issues" about difference and integration in Britain.

Romain, the rabbi, said that instead of trying to silence offensive speech, people of all faiths could learn from the deft response of the Mormon church to irreverent stage musical "The Book of Mormon."

"They didn't scream and shout outside. They didn't harass the actors," he said. "They took out a full-page advert in the program saying, 'You've seen the play. Now come to one of our churches and see the difference.'"


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-01-26

[malathione]

There is a difference between hate speech and enticement to violence as compared to parody and what some, or even all, might find offensive.

[Steely Dan]

Point of fact Tell Mama was once funded by the UK government to monitor Islamophobia, but has subsequently lost its funding due to blatant fabrication of supposed hate crimes. Regarding the O.P, calls to hatred of and violence of living people is different from lampooning someone's sky fairy, hence blasphemy laws in general not applying in Europe.

[Ulysses G.]

The usual false moral equivalence arguments from the left. Most Jews and Mormons try to fit in to society and they do not react to satire of their religions with violence. Too many Muslims don't want to fit in and believe that murder is justified when it comes to cartoons mocking their prophet.

Edited January 26, 2015 by Ulysses G.

[Kitsune]

I agree

Dieudonné has been making money surfing on pointing out how political correctness had double standards in France

Putting him to jail for saying "je suis Charlie Coulibali" was not the appropriate way of dealing with him. It was based on emotional stances not rational.

No country is perfect

[Kitsune]

The usual false moral equivalence arguments from the left. Jews and Mormons try to fit in to society and they do not react to satire of their religions with violence. Too many Muslims don't want to fit in and believe that murder is justified when it comes to cartoons mocking their prophet.

Mahomet WAS mocked by cartoonists in his time,and he forgave them, exactly like Charlie's new issue he said "ALL IS FORGIVEN"

[Emster23]

A discussion of freedom of speech in Thailand, where people are arrested for reading 1984 or using boyscout salute.... and then the defamation and slander laws. I could be arrested here for insulting my president that would perfectly legal to say in USA.......

[Kitsune]

A discussion of freedom of speech in Thailand, where people are arrested for reading 1984 or using boyscout salute.... and then the defamation and slander laws. I could be arrested here for insulting my president that would perfectly legal to say in USA.......

That's why France is important

Too many countries are looking to France as example of democracy and freedom of speech.

After the Arab's spring revolution, some Tunisian and Algerian cartoonists came to Paris to visit their French colleagues, they said:

"We will know we have won the Arab spring revolution (and free speech) when we will have Charlie equivalent in our country"

[MikeOboe57]

Keane said many Muslims feel they "are treated as second-class citizens."

This is unacceptable, as it is their right to divide the population into first-class citizens (umma), second class (dhimmi) and outlaws (infidels, who refuse to surrender).

My deepest sympathies for their plight.

[Nemesis7]

So many anti muskim comments here.???

There are good, bad people in every race, religion, and in every country, but we shouldn't generalize.

[nahkit]

So many anti muskim comments here.???

There are good, bad people in every race, religion, and in every country, but we shouldn't generalize.

Hopefully I'm allowed to post this link, perhaps you might feel different after reading this?

http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/rod-liddle/9420582/its-all-kicking-off-in-the-islamic-world-nothing-at-all-to-do-with-islam-of-course/

[humqdpf]

The usual false moral equivalence arguments from the left. Most Jews and Mormons try to fit in to society and they do not react to satire of their religions with violence. Too many Muslims don't want to fit in and believe that murder is justified when it comes to cartoons mocking their prophet.

When you define "fit in" and you quantify "too many," I might take your post a little more seriously.

[Steely Dan]

So many anti muskim comments here.???

There are good, bad people in every race, religion, and in every country, but we shouldn't generalize.

Hopefully I'm allowed to post this link, perhaps you might feel different after reading this?

http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/rod-liddle/9420582/its-all-kicking-off-in-the-islamic-world-nothing-at-all-to-do-with-islam-of-course/

Indeed the whole O.P reveals a double standard in our thinking, but not the one intended. I'm referring to the very idea of contemplating giving an alien ideology a right to determine where the line is regarding free speech when just about all Islamic Countries repress it severely. This is all the more ironic considering these restrictions apply more to infidels than Muslims, even 'moderate' Malaysia has a list of words only Muslims can say.

It is high time we treated Islam with the strictest application of quid pro quo and stopped pandering to politically motivated intimidation.

[F430murci]

So many anti muskim comments here.???

There are good, bad people in every race, religion, and in every country, but we shouldn't generalize.

Hopefully I'm allowed to post this link, perhaps you might feel different after reading this?

http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/rod-liddle/9420582/its-all-kicking-off-in-the-islamic-world-nothing-at-all-to-do-with-islam-of-course/

Yes, unfortunately the activities of Boko Haram and ISIS provide much insight as to how these radical Islamists would be acting in UK, France, US and etc. if not constantly monitored or kept in check.

Nothing to see here in OP article. Just another example of a not too smart journalist trying to push the envelope on a controversial subject by over thinking and over analyzing the subject matter to the point she lost touch with reality and common sense.

[than]

Welcome in a "democratic" country..........

[Lissos]

French arrests raise question: Is free speech for all?

None of us truly believe in free speech / free expression in the way it generally gets put up on an invisible altar and worshipped in certain moments. People are gang bashed every other day by the media or culture generally for expressing their opinion or themselves in a way that the masses find threatening, and even fewer of us are truly willing to "defend to the death" the right of someone to rub salt into one our cultural raw nerves, whatever that may be. The fact that we have all this legislation around it, shows that we know it is not workable on a mass scale such as that of a nation. One microcosm of this is most workplaces, where what people can say or express verbally or through clothing, is controlled heavily by conditions of employment which aim to avoid highlighting individuality and certainly differences in political opinion so that everyone can focus on the task in hand.