Another Day, Another Death Threat
This time the "religion of peace" people are after a French high school philosophy teacher named Robert Redeker who published a piece in Le Figaro criticizing Islam as a violent and barbaric religion.
Naturally, Muslims were quick to show him how wrong he was -- by publishing detailed death threats against him (including directions to his house so he could be more easily murdered).
Redeker's friend, Johns Hopkins University literature and philosophy professor Christian Delacampagne writes in Commentary:
The piece, a response to the controversy over remarks about Islam made a week earlier by Pope Benedict XVI, was titled “What Should the Free World Do in the Face of Islamist Intimidation?” It was a fierce critique of what Redeker called Islam’s attempt “to place its leaden cloak over the world.” If Jesus was “a master of love,” he wrote, Muhammad was “a master of hatred.” Of the three “religions of the book,” Islam was the only one that overtly preached holy war. “Whereas Judaism and Christianity are religions whose rites reject and delegitimize violence,” Redeker concluded, “Islam is a religion that, in its own sacred text, as well as in its everyday rites, exalts violence and hatred.”Having been posted online, the article was read all across France and in other countries as well, and was quickly translated into Arabic. Denunciations of Redeker’s “insult of the prophet” spread across the Internet. Within a day after publication, the piece was being condemned on al Jazeera by the popular on-air preacher (and unofficial voice of Osama bin Laden) Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi. In Egypt and Tunisia, the offending issue of Le Figaro was banned.
As for Redeker himself, he soon received a large number of threats by letter and e-mail. On an Islamist website, he was sentenced to death in a posting that, in order to facilitate a potential assassin’s task, also provided his address and a photograph of his home. Fearful for himself and his family, Redeker sought protection from the local police, who transferred the case to the national counter-espionage authorities. On their advice, Redeker, his wife, and three children fled their home and took shelter in a secret location. Since then, they have moved from city to city, at their own expense, under police protection. Another teacher has been appointed by the French Ministry of Education to replace Redeker, who will probably never see his students again.
The article, in the original French, is here. Here's a rough Google translation in English. (The "string" means thong bathing suits, and he's talking about "Paris Plage," the banks of the Seine that, thanks to Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë, are turned into a sandy "beach" every summer.)
"Sorry, my imaginary friend X told me I had to kill you because you don't think like me" has been a staple of the imaginary friend business since X was in diapers.
Little Shiva at January 7, 2007 7:41 AM
Just wait until the time of the Great White Handkerchief! You'll see the power of the Great Green Arkleseizure!
Radwaste at January 7, 2007 2:11 PM
Did I take an LSD trip and forget to leave myself a note?
Amy Alkon at January 7, 2007 2:18 PM
Amy, any shots of you wearing 'le string' on Paris Plage or elsewhere? I think green would be your color. And it would be the exact poke in the eye that these fundamentalists need. Come on, A, do it for the kids!
Cat brother at January 7, 2007 3:20 PM
Amy, what I think Radwaste is trying to say is: if you think religious tolerance is at a nadir now, just wait 'til the great appeasement/surrender by the West (something that ain't gonna happen, btw; radical American isolationism would happen first) to radical islam occurs, and big dead slabs of hooked meat at Ralphs are accorded more rights and respect than most human women are provided.
Not agreeing, just translating... ;-)
qdpsteve at January 7, 2007 3:40 PM
One blogger labels Islam as the religion with the biggest chip on its shoulder.
Joe at January 7, 2007 5:25 PM
Google translated thusly:
However, the not-prohibition of the port of the veil in the street is, because of reprobation that this support for oppression against the women causes, more suitable “to disturb the law and order” than the string.
"The port of the veil"?? There was perhaps some discussion of forbidding veils in public in France?
k at January 7, 2007 5:37 PM
Amy, any shots of you wearing 'le string' on Paris Plage or elsewhere?
Not at the moment, but thank you so much for asking!
I love the "biggest chip" description.
And the veil ban was in the schools...France has prohibited the wearing of all religious symbols in schools under "laïcité" (essentially, secularism). What he's doing is holding up the lack of a ban on the veils against the ban on the string.
Amy Alkon at January 7, 2007 5:44 PM
Amy, any shots of you wearing 'le string' on Paris Plage or elsewhere?
Not at the moment, but thank you so much for asking!
Then the terrorists have won! (sob!)
Cat brother at January 7, 2007 6:07 PM
But truth be told, I got an accidental glimpse of Amy's cooter one early morning in Paris, and it was very pretty.
Lena at January 7, 2007 6:50 PM
There was hidden meaning in Rad's statement? And here I thought Radwaste just felt it was a good opportunity to quote The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Jamie at January 8, 2007 9:40 AM
The teacher has every right to be fearful. Ask Theo Van Gogh (oh that's right, you can't because his throat was slit in broad daylight on a street in Amsterdam because he made a movie critical of the way Islam treats women)
Many Dutch politicians must live in hiding because of their anti (muslim)immigrant positions. The man that translated "the Satanic Verses" into Japanese was murdered for doing so. On and on...
The french example cited is but one of many demonstrating attempts to bend secular societies to Sharia. French law says the teacher can say what he wants. Islamic law says he can't. If other French thinkers restrain from criticizing Islam out of fear then Sharia has won. Once free speech is gone it will be much easier to convert the rest of the society to Islamic law. Muslims don't need to win converts to win a society for Islam. All they have to do is make the population submit to their rules.
Interesting reading
http://disaffectedmuslim.blogspot.com/
winston at January 8, 2007 7:28 PM
Jihad is worldwide. It's not just westerners that are the targets. Muslim vs. Hindu violence is common. This is an example of Muslim vs. Buddhist violence.
The Associated Press Published: January 8, 2007
"Thai Buddhist teacher dies after nearly 8 months in coma from Muslim mob attack
Juling Kamphongmoon, an elementary school art teacher, was clubbed May 19 by a village mob until her skull shattered after being taken hostage in her classroom in Narathiwat province.
The brutal beating shocked Thailand and became a glaring example of tensions between Buddhists and Muslims in the country's three restive southern provinces where more than 1,900 people have been killed since an Islamic separatist movement flared in January 2004.
Juling, along with another Buddhist teacher, was attacked and taken hostage by about 200 villagers angered by the arrest of two suspected Muslim rebels. The other teacher suffered injuries but survived the attack."
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/08/asia/AS-GEN-Thailand-Southern-violence.php
ALL non-muslims must learn their place.
winston at January 8, 2007 8:10 PM
with all due respect, it took a strong French king to end the crusades. what will it take to stop Bush?
roknich at January 10, 2007 9:23 PM
To Roknich who wrote: *with all due respect, it took a strong French king to end the crusades.*
Which strong French king ended the crusades?
According to historical sources, the 9th and last crusade ended in defeat for the crusaders in 1291 when the St. Jean d'Acre fortress was retaken by the Muslims, exactly a century after being taken by king Richard the Lion-Hearted. During the summer following the fall of St. Jean d'Acre in May 1291, the cities of Tyre, Sidon & Beirut were lost & totally razed by the victorious Mamluks, signifying the end of the Christian kingdom in the Mid-East.
As to Roknich's *what will it take to stop Bush?*, history having a way of repeating itself...
Frania W. at January 11, 2007 10:17 PM
Thanks, Frania...I can always count on you for the historical cleanup!
Amy Alkon at January 12, 2007 4:59 AM
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