o sung wu wrote;

“'Charlie Hebdo' were ill-advised, in fact manifestly wrong, to publish this satirical material in their magazine.”

I agree for a different reason.

What I will not brook is racial vilification and incitement. Unchecked it has lead to some of the greatest loss of life in the modern era.

CH skirted the boundaries and on more than one occasion crossed it. But what is telling is their apparent hypocrisy. After reproducing the Mohammed Cartoons the publication was taken to court in France by an Islamic body claiming the cartoons incited racial hatred. Their case was strengthened soon after 80 Muslim graves were daubed with Swastikas. The court denied the claim on the grounds of free speech.

However when one of their columnists wrote the relatively innocuous remark about the president's son the editor sacked him.

“A Left-wing cartoonist is to go on trial on Tuesday on charges of anti-Semitism for suggesting Jean Sarkozy, the son of the French president, was converting to Judaism for financial reasons.

Maurice Sinet, 80, who works under the pen name Sine, faces charges of "inciting racial hatred" for a column he wrote last July in the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. The piece sparked a summer slanging match among the Parisian intelligentsia and ended in his dismissal from the magazine.
"L'affaire Sine" followed the engagement of Mr Sarkozy, 22, to Jessica Sebaoun-Darty, the Jewish heiress of an electronic goods chain. Commenting on an unfounded rumour that the president's son planned to convert to Judaism, Sine quipped: "He'll go a long way in life, that little lad."

A high-profile political commentator slammed the column as linking prejudice about Jews and social success. Charlie Hebdo's editor, Philippe Val, asked Sinet to apologise but he refused, exclaiming: "I'd rather cut my balls off."

Mr Val's decision to fire Sine was backed by a group of eminent intellectuals, including the philosopher Bernard-Henry Lévy, but parts of the libertarian Left defended him, citing the right to free speech.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/4351672/French-cartoonist-Sine-on-trial-on-charges-of-anti-Semitism-over-Sarkozy-jibe.html

I imagine a lot of anti-Islam comments on OLO would not pass the muster if couched around Judaism.

Eeek, sorry guys, last post was wrong thread.

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Dear George,

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We have just lived through an intensely emotive experience here in Paris. It was reported direct by French television non-stop, around the clock, since the first hail of bullets mowed down the cartoonists in the newsroom of Charlie Hebdo on Friday 9 January.

There has been no discrimination whatsoever among the 17 victims, by colour, race, religion, profession or social standing. France prides itself as being home to the largest Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe: 600,000 Jews and 6 million Muslims. Each victim has been treated with the same respect and esteem. The family and friends of each of them have been interviewed, honoured and comforted by the media, the general public, the president, the prime minister and the minister of the interior.

Four million people demonstrated spontaneously throughout France on Sunday, of which 2 million in Paris, an historical record.

Judging from the comments of the people interviewed, the general reaction has been similar to yours. People appeared to be more shocked by the gratuitous killing of a young police woman who was attending to a car accident - just because she was wearing a police uniform – as well as the office cleaner who had just arrived for his first day’s work - and the four customers in the grocery store - just because they were presumed to be Jews - than they were at the killing of the cartoonists who, 10 years previously, had offended the jihadists’ religious beliefs.

But it is more complex than that. The attack has several dimensions and overtones:

- a sociological dimension: the deplorable environment in the ghettos on the outskirts of Paris and other major cities which are the breeding grounds of crime and extremism. Religious fanatics feed on the human rubbish heaps and recycle them as human bombs,
- a symbolical dimension: the eternal battle of obscurantism versus enlightenment,
- a religious dimension: religious intolerance, jihadism,
- a political dimension: theocracy versus democracy,
- a legal dimension: France abolished the offence of blasphemy in 1791
- a humanist dimension: freedoms of press and expression

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'Christian views on the fallen nature of humanity, our sinfull nature and our deservedness of an eternity of torment are hardly expressions of tollerance or respectful of human dignity. For many believers they ar an esential part of the package of their gods plan for salvation of the undeserving by grace.'

True Robert puts us all in the same boat. Its only offensive to you because you know its true. Equating it with Islam that demands death to those who refuse to convert is a little ingenuous.

Dear runner,

Adoption of Christianity or death has been a choice offered to many non-christian people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_conversion tells a bit about it.

St. Olaf, patron saint of Norway, gave the pagan Norse the choice of conversion, the blood-eagle or exile. In the blood eagle the person had his or lungs spread out besides his or her body.

Charlemagne gave the pagan Gauls the choice of beheading or conversion to Christianity.

Richard Fletcher wrote "The Conversion of Europe from Paganism to Christianity: 371-1386". The conversion of Europe to Christianity was accompanied by great violence and massacres of those who refused to convert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodosius_I tells of the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire.

"The Christian persecution of Roman religion under Theodosius I began in 381, after the first couple of years of his reign in the Eastern Empire. In the 380s, Theodosius I reiterated Constantine's ban on former customs of Roman religion, prohibited haruspicy on pain of death, pioneered the criminalization of Magistrates who did not enforce laws against polytheism, broke up some pagan associations and tolerated attacks on Roman temples.

...

In 393 he issued a comprehensive law that prohibited any public non-Christian religious customs, and was particularly oppressive to Manicheans."

There have been many martyrs of people who were unwilling to abandon their faith in the face of Christian oppression.

The Muslims have followed the Christian example.

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For those who are not familiar with Charlie Hebdo, perhaps I should add that it derides all major religions, without exception, and has been regularly attacked in the courts over the years but, to my knowledge, rarely, if ever, condemned. It prides itself on its secularism.

It was banned on one occasion (for its irreverence to General de Gaulle’s death) but later resuscitated under a new name. Like many French people, I buy it occasionally. The cartoonists are (were) particularly brilliant. Though most people never read it, it has a tremendous prestige throughout the country. It is considered a national treasure that many are quick to defend as though it were a matter of life and death.

Some commentators suggest that it epitomises the caustic French mentality/personality. It is certainly an icon in France of the freedom of the press and the freedom of expression.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hebdo

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