Freedom of Speech in France:

For the Powerful, By the

Powerful, With the Powerful

Let us leave aside what occurs closer to home where allied

British and American Troops are repeatedly bombing and
killing Al-Jazeera journalists. Let us look past the locking up
of Moazzam Begg for exposing British collaboration with the
Syrian regime in torture, or even Edward Snowden and Julian
Assanges freedom of speech. It remains very obvious for
those informed that freedom of speech does not exist
anywhere in the world if it does not suit the ruling paradigm
or ideology.
Frances (and the Wests) claim that free expression is a
fundamental principle is a myth, an opiate of the masses,
explicitly invoked for anti-Semitic purposes in the years
leading up to the holocaust, and has recently been used to
whip up hatred of immigrants, ethnic minorities and Muslims.
As everywhere else in the Free World, in France, free
expression is for some but not others:
1. A French court injunction banned a Jesus based
clothing advert mimicking Da Vincis Last Supper. The
display was ruled a gratuitous and aggressive act of
intrusion on peoples innermost beliefs, by the French
judge.[1]
2. In 2005 Aides Haute-Garonne organized an informative
evening about the prevention of the HIV-AIDS. The
prospectus contained a head-and-shoulders image of a
woman wearing a nuns bonnet and two pink condoms. On
the grounds that the prospectus insulted a group because
of its religion, a court convicted Aides Haute-Garonne.
3. In 1994 Le quotidien de Paris published the article
Lobscurit de lerreur by journalist, sociologist, and historian
Paul Giniewski. The article criticises the Pope, and states that
Catholic doctrine abetted the conception and the realisation

of Auschwitz. A court upheld proceedings on the ground that

the article was an insult to a group because of its
religion, and convicted the newspaper.
4. Charlie Hebdo Magazine itself censored, apologised
and then fired longtime cartoonist Sin for a caricature
insulting the son of former president Nicholas Sarkozy and
his wife Jessica Sebaoun-Darty, while staunchly standing on
their right to repeatedly troll Muslims, minorities and
immigrants e.g. by showing Muammad (sall Allhu alayhi
wa sallam) naked and bending over which tells you
something about the brand of satire they practice and that
they would rather be aiming downward than upward.[2]
5. Dieudonn MBala a French comedian and satirist was
convicted and fined in France for describing Holocaust
remembrance as memorial pornography.[3]
6. The Quennele hand sign has been described as antiestablishment and anti-zionist by French youth and famous
football players (e.g. Anelka). It stoked serious controversy in
France since first being used by anti-establishment comedian
Dieudonn MBala MBala in 2005. MBala has been barred
from many theatres and convicted many times for his
freedom of speech.'[4]
7. As part of internal security enactments passed in 2003,
it is an offense to insult the national flag or anthem,
with a penalty of a maximum 9,000 euro or up to six months
imprisonment. Restrictions on offending the dignity of
the republic, on the other hand, include insulting
anyone who serves the public.
8. French Rap Star Facing Prison for Insulting the
French State, insulting Napoleon and Charles de
Gaulle.[5] It is illegal to insult the French state and it seems
historical characters like Napoleon and Charles De Gaulle are
sacred. But Muammad (sall Allhu alayhi wa sallam), the
leading light and ideal of divine justice for 1.5 billion people
is open to criticism?
9. Nicolas Sarkozy, then-Interior Minister and former
President of the Republic until 2012, ordered the firing of the
director of Paris Match because he had published photos
of Ccilia Sarkozy (his wife) with another man in New York.

10. In 2006, rapper Joestarr had his rap song against

President Sarkozy censored.[6]
11. The following films have been censored in France for
provoking violence:
LEssayeuse (1976) Romance (1999) Le Mur (2011)
12. Under Frances Public Health Code passed on the 31
December 1970, positive presentation of drugs and
the incitement to their consumption stipulates five years in
prison and fines of up to 76,000. Newspapers such as
Libration, Charlie Hebdo and associations, political parties,
and various publications criticising the current drug laws and
advocating drug reform in France have been repeatedly hit
with heavy fines based on this law.[7]
13. Muslim women are barred from education (No, not
just by the Taliban) in France, if they practise their religion
by wearing a headscarf, despite French schools having no
policy on uniforms, neither are crosses on necklaces allowed.
14. Frances law against religious symbols in public
spaces is specifically enforced to target Muslim women who
choose to wear hijabironic considering we are now touting
Charlie Hebdo as a symbol of Frances staunch commitment
to civil liberties.[8]
15. It is illegal in France to take the opinion of the Turkish
side on the then civil war involving Armenians. It is illegal to
deny that the killing of Armenians by Turkish troops was a
deliberate genocide.
16. In 2007, a tribunal in Lyon sentenced Bruno Gollnisch
and fined him 5,000 for the offense of contesting some of
the information about the Holocaust and ordered him to pay
55,000 euros in damages to the plaintiffs and to pay for the
judgment to be published in the newspapers that originally
printed his remarks.
British Freedom of Speech Evangelicals seem to be
silent when it comes to the freedom of speech of
Muslims:
So for example, when a Muslim decided to burn a poppy on the
streets of London an act which physically harmed nobody they
demanded the individual responsible be prosecuted (he was) and
remained noticeably silent about the death threats directed towards
him as a result of his exercising his right to free speech and expression.

Similarly when a group of Muslims held a peaceful if vocal protest

against British military returnees from Afghanistan it seems that
suddenly the right to offend was no longer sacrosanct.[9]

Just to be clear about what the Charlie Hebdo magazine was

about, I would like to quote some left-wing, liberal, socialist,
atheist folks, because I am sure if an Islamist said the below
he would end up on a list somewhere under the British Stasi
PREVENT spying and thought police programme:
Charlie Hebdo has facilitated the growth of a form of politicized antiMuslim sentiment that bears a disturbing resemblance to the
politicized anti-Semitism that emerged as a mass movement in France
in the 1890s.
In its use of crude and vulgar caricatures that purvey a sinister and
stereotyped image of Muslims, Charlie Hebdo recalls the cheap racist
publications that played a significant role in fostering the anti-Semitic
agitation that swept France during the famous Dreyfus Affair, which
erupted in 1894 after a Jewish officer was accused and falsely
convicted of espionage on behalf of Germany. In whipping up popular
hatred of Jews, La Libre Parole [Free Speech], published by the
infamous Edoard Adolfe Drumont, made highly effective use of
cartoons that employed the familiar anti-Semitic devices. The
caricatures served to inflame public opinion, inciting mobs against
Dreyfus and his defenders, such as Emile Zola, the great novelist and
author of JAccuse.[10]

Lastly on the role of satire, it needs to be responsible:

The whole reason the concept of responsible satire has been summed
up as punch up, dont punch down is to acknowledge that not all
your targets of satire start out on an equal footing. Francois Hollande is
not on the same level as girls who have been kidnapped into sexual
slavery, and having the same no-holds-barred attitude toward them
both is not the same as treating them fairly. {Charlie Hebdo had a front
page cartoon about Nigerian Muslim schoolgirls kidnapped, raped and
impregnated by terrorists depicted as benefits scroungers pregnant
with more benefits scroungers feeding into that now popular
stereotype about black immigrants sucking the white states finances
dry.}
The situation of the Muslims in France right now is rather dismal. The
scars of the riots nine years ago are still fresh for many people,
Muslims make up 60 to 70 percent of the prison population despite
being less than 20 percent of the population overall, and Frances law
against religious symbols in public spaces is specifically enforced to
target Muslim women who choose to wear hijabironic considering we
are now touting Charlie Hebdo as a symbol of Frances staunch
commitment to civil liberties.[11]

Source: www.islam21c.com
Notes:
[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4337031.stm
[2] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/09/trollsand-martyrdom-je-ne-suis-pas-charlie.html
[3] http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/nicolasanelka-anti-semitic-gesture-quenelle-2966787
[4] www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/nicolas-anelka-antisemitic-gesture-quenelle-2966787
[5] http://www.nme.com/news/Monsieur-R/23193
[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_France#List_of_ce
nsored_songs
[7] http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCodeArticle.do?
idArticle=LEGIARTI000006688178&cidTexte=LEGITEXT00000
6072665
[8] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/09/trollsand-martyrdom-je-ne-suis-pas-charlie.html
[9] https://maskedavenger1.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/lemort-de-charlie-hebdo-quel-dommage/
[10] http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/01/09/persj09.html
[11] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/09/trollsand-martyrdom-je-ne-suis-pas-charlie.html