France temporarily closes embassies and consulates in 20 countries after Muhammad cartoons - Polidicks

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19646748[/url] [quote=BBC News][B]Security has been increased at France's interests abroad after a French satirical magazine published obscene cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.[/B] French embassies, consulates, cultural centres and schools in some 20 countries will be closed for the next few days as a precaution. Government ministers voiced concern at the Charlie Hebdo cartoons but defended the freedom of the press. Riot police have been deployed around the magazine's offices in Paris. The magazine has confirmed that its website has been attacked. It was not accessible as of Wednesday morning. Its paper edition features caricatures which play on both the uproar in the Islamic world over an amateur video which mocks Islam and the row over the publication in France of topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge. A tenet of Islam bans the portrayal of its founder, the Prophet Muhammad. Some 30 people have died in violent protests which erupted early last week over the Innocence of Muslims video, which was made in the United States. The dead include the US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans, who died in Benghazi. US and other Western embassies have come under attack in mainly Muslim countries. [B]'Disgraceful and hateful'[/B] Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he was "concerned" at the cartoons and had ordered "special security measures... in all the countries where this [publication] could pose a problem". The closures relate to possible protests following weekly Muslim prayers. No list of countries affected was immediately available. However, the following measures have been put in place: • Security was being enhanced noticeably at the embassy in the Egyptian capital Cairo, as French schools and cultural centres in the country were set to close on Thursday • The embassy in the Indonesian capital Jakarta announced on its website it would close on Friday • French schools in Tunisia were due to close from Wednesday afternoon until Monday morning, and the embassy in Tunis will be closed on Friday A [url=http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/global-issues/human-rights/events-2128/other-events-6494/article/caricatures-charlie-hebdo-18-09-12]statement about the cartoons[/url] on the French foreign ministry's website quotes Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault as saying "freedom of expression is one of [France's] fundamental principles", as are secularism and respect for religious convictions. "And this is why, in the current context, the prime minister would like to express his disapproval of any excesses," the statement adds. But US White House spokesman Jay Carney expressed concern at the decision to publish the cartoons, comparing them to the Innocence of Muslims video which caused uproar in last week. "We know that these images will be deeply offensive to many and have the potential to be inflammatory," he said. "... We don't question the right of something like this to be published, we just question the judgement behind the decision to publish it and I think that's our view about the video that was produced in this country and has caused so much offence in the Muslim world." [B]'Stupid provocation'[/B] Muslim leaders urged calm in France, which has the EU's largest Muslim community - about 10% of the population. "This is a disgraceful and hateful, useless and stupid provocation," Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris Grand Mosque, told the Associated Press news agency before meeting Mr Valls. "We are not like animals of Pavlov to react at each insult," he added, referring to the Russian physiologist who pioneered research into conditioning. Charlie Hebdo, known in France for its scatological cartoons, has caricatured other religious figures in the past, including a "Pope special" in 2008 which resulted in an unsuccessful court action accusing the magazine of inciting hate. One of the milder cartoons in Wednesday's edition, the cover image, shows an Orthodox Jew pushing a turbaned figure in a wheelchair, with the caption "You mustn't mock". Among the explicit cartoons inside, one clearly parodies the topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge which appeared in Closer magazine, and resulted in an [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19631591]injunction[/url] on Tuesday. The editor-in-chief of the magazine, Gerard Biard, told the BBC's World Have Your Say programme they had published the cartoons because the protests about the film were newsworthy. "These publications will not cost lives," he said. "Who killed people? We are not killing people, I'm sorry. We are not the violent ones. We are just journalists." Magazine editor Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier said earlier: "I'm not asking strict Muslims to read Charlie Hebdo, 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.[/quote]

Time to accept the consequences France. (not that there should be any)

Yeah that's pretty pathetic. It almost looks like Muslims can't take any kind of mocking without going complete apeshit. I mean seriously other religious people take shit all the time (look at jews), learn to deal with it.

Uncivilized.

Called it.

This has gone well beyond the point of being too much, not in the sense that complete morons get pissed off by it, but rather the fact that embassies and so forth needs to be closed, and people get killed. Though, I can't blame them for taking precautionary measures.

[QUOTE=maurits150;37726613]Yeah that's pretty pathetic. It almost looks like Muslims can't take any kind of mocking without going complete apeshit. I mean seriously other religious people take shit all the time (look at jews), learn to deal with it.[/QUOTE] If every muslim or even most muslims gave a shit, we'd really fucking know about it

[QUOTE=maurits150;37726613]Yeah that's pretty pathetic. It almost looks like Muslims can't take any kind of mocking without going complete apeshit. I mean seriously other religious people take shit all the time (look at jews), learn to deal with it.[/QUOTE] Hell, jews rip on themselves almost constantly. Never once met a muslim who made fun of himself or could listen to a joke referencing Islam without taking it personal. And here's what I have to say in response to that: [IMG]http://thesuperjesus.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/southparkuncensoredspssweb2ey.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=Pat4ever;37726823]Hell, jews rip on themselves almost constantly. Never once met a muslim who made fun of himself or could listen to a joke referencing Islam without taking it personal. And here's what I have to say in response to that: [IMG]http://thesuperjesus.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/southparkuncensoredspssweb2ey.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] What about that [url=http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1212573]massive Twitter movement[/url] that happened two days ago wherein hundreds of Muslims made jokes about their religion

[QUOTE=Pat4ever;37726823]Never once met a muslim who made fun of himself or could listen to a joke referencing Islam without taking it personal.[/QUOTE] you don't know that many muslims don't you? I know several personally.

[QUOTE=smurfy;37727003]What about that [url=http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1212573]massive Twitter movement[/url] that happened two days ago wherein hundreds of Muslims made jokes about their religion[/QUOTE] it's nice to see counter movements but Islamist extremists are still extremely violent and militant a few people cracking jokes on the internet doesn't make that go away.

[QUOTE=trotskygrad;37727088]you don't know that many muslims don't you? I know several personally.[/QUOTE] Great for you. Are you trying to brag or something? I have met my fair share as well, and am actually friends with several, so please don't make any assumptions. That being said, I wasn't trying to make a generalization that all muslims are uptight people that can't make or take a joke about themselves, while all jews are completely fine with it, I was saying that I just haven't met one that doesn't bite down their lip upon hearing it or feel offended. I'm sure there are plenty; it's not like a group of people all think the same thing. Although they're certainly not shown in the media spotlight as often as those who do get offended, clearly.

[QUOTE=Pat4ever;37727620]Great for you. Are you trying to brag or something? I have met my fair share as well, and am actually friends with several, so please don't make any assumptions. That being said, I wasn't trying to make a generalization that all muslims are uptight people that can't make or take a joke about themselves, while all jews are completely fine with it, I was saying that I just haven't met one that doesn't bite down their lip upon hearing it or feel offended. I'm sure there are plenty; it's not like a group of people all think the same thing. Although they're certainly not shown in the media spotlight as often as those who do get offended, clearly.[/QUOTE] I'm just saying it's really odd if that's actually the case, that you really haven't met a muslim that can't take a joke about their religion or makes jokes about themselves without feeling offended. and " Never once met a muslim who made fun of himself or could listen to a joke referencing Islam without taking it personal." seems like a generalization to me, sorry.

seems like a lot of you guys going "all muslims are really cool people" believe that one guy in your class = all muslims lived in the ME for 12 months and muslims are [I]generally[/I] pretty pissy about their imaginary friend

Islam is the north korea of religions.

[QUOTE=trotskygrad;37727724] and " Never once met a muslim who made fun of himself or could listen to a joke referencing Islam without taking it personal." seems like a generalization to me, sorry.[/QUOTE] It's cool; if anything it's just an irrelevant anecdote anyway since of course there's going to be muslims who just don't give a shit or laugh about it freely. In reality I also made a generalization that all jews joke about themselves, when that's really not the case, so I guess I already went astray with the first sentence. In response to the two posts above me, however, there's certainly an underlying stereotype not so subtly shown in them.

[QUOTE=Honesty;37727784]seems like a lot of you guys going "all muslims are really cool people" believe that one guy in your class = all muslims lived in the ME for 12 months and muslims are [I]generally[/I] pretty pissy about their imaginary friend[/QUOTE] Assuming all muslims are extremist hooligans is worse than assuming all muslims are cool. It doesn't help that the media is trying to paint muslims as extremist hooligans as well.

[QUOTE=Honesty;37727784]seems like a lot of you guys going "all muslims are really cool people" believe that one guy in your class = all muslims lived in the ME for 12 months and muslims are [I]generally[/I] pretty pissy about their imaginary friend[/QUOTE] Yeah, I imagine Muslims in the middle east, where there are multiple countries heavily influenced by extremist islamic practices, would be pretty tense areas when it comes to mocking the main religion. HURRR DUUR MIDDLE EASTERN MUSLIMS TAKE SHIT SERIOUSLY, in other news the sky is blue, the sun will rise tomorrow and grass is indeed still green.

I've lived in the Middle East for 8 years and coming from an Arab background myself, I can tell you that not all Muslims are like this. Many of them don't agree with the backlash over the Innocence of Muslims films. It's not really because they are Muslim, its more because they are Arab. Many Arabs tend to be aggressive (I know I am, Christian background for me though) and very protective of not only their religion but their women (in terms of fathers/brothers protecting their daughters/sisters, not being sexist), money, rights etc.

Muslims in Malaysia gets pissy too if you made jokes about their religion. Either that or everyone around me gets offended easily

[QUOTE=Honesty;37727784]seems like a lot of you guys going "all muslims are really cool people" believe that one guy in your class = all muslims lived in the ME for 12 months and muslims are [I]generally[/I] pretty pissy about their imaginary friend[/QUOTE] Well, no shit they're pissy. The Mid-East is the literal hotbed of religious conflict now and of course when you antagonize people on their beliefs who rarely see other religions, they're going to lash out. It's not exactly a new concept that mocking what a person believes is going to increase someone's blood pressure, especially so when it's a place like where the religion being mocked originated. To put it bluntly, when you mock someone's religion in the Mid-East, you're generally mocking their: culture, person, and beliefs. Really, why would anyone even do that? What reason is there to purposely be a dickhead, knowing that you're offending someone and that there could be some backlash?

[QUOTE=Honesty;37727784]seems like a lot of you guys going "all muslims are really cool people" believe that one guy in your class = all muslims lived in the ME for 12 months and muslims are [I]generally[/I] pretty pissy about their imaginary friend[/QUOTE] most christians are too, what's your point? [editline]19th September 2012[/editline] Hey guys wanna know why Islam seems so violent? Certainly it's not because many of them live in the Middle-East, one of the most historically conflict-ridden areas in the world that's rife with corrupt governments. Nope, it's just those dirty Muslims can't take a joke.

[QUOTE=SgtCr4zyGunz;37729823]most christians are too, what's your point? [editline]19th September 2012[/editline] Hey guys wanna know why Islam seems so violent? Certainly it's not because [B]many of them live in the Middle-Eas[/B]t, one of the most historically conflict-ridden areas in the world that's rife with corrupt governments. Nope, it's just those dirty Muslims can't take a joke.[/QUOTE] It's the ones rioting in European/Australian/non middle-eastern cities that really make them look bad. It's like please, leave your violent behavior at the border... (I don't mean ALL of them, just the extremists)

[QUOTE=maurits150;37726613]Yeah that's pretty pathetic. It almost looks like Muslims can't take any kind of mocking without going complete apeshit. I mean seriously other religious people take shit all the time (look at jews), learn to deal with it.[/QUOTE] What the fuck is wrong with Facepunch? Islam is not the only religion with extremists. [editline]19th September 2012[/editline] [quote]Muslim leaders urged calm in France, which has the EU's largest Muslim community - about 10% of the population. "This is a disgraceful and hateful, useless and stupid provocation," Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris Grand Mosque, told the Associated Press news agency before meeting Mr Valls. "We are not like animals of Pavlov to react at each insult," he added, referring to the Russian physiologist who pioneered research into conditioning.[/quote] Does anyone even know how to read an article? There were no Muslim threats even made, the French just got paranoid.