Posts Tagged ‘Islam’
Tunisian State Detains Rappers for Being Rude about the Police.
Not to Islamists’ Taste.
More repression by Tunisian Islamist Government.
Alakhabar reports.
Tunisian authorities have detained two people and charged them with insulting security forces in a rap video uploaded to the Internet, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.
“The rap video posted on YouTube called ‘Boulicia Kleb’ (The Police are Dogs) has words and gestures that are unethical, abusive and threatening towards security forces and magistrates,” the ministry said.
“A police investigation identified those who made and released the video… there are eight of them. On Sunday, March 10, two of them, a young man and a girl, were arrested,” the ministry added.
The Ben Arous court in Tunis authorized their detention, the ministry said.
Media outlets reported that the two were a cameraman and an actress seen in the clip, adding that the rapper, Weld El 15, was being sought.
Interior ministry spokesman Riahi Adel said the two were arrested for slander and rebelling against officials, and that they could face up to five years in prison.
In the video Weld El 15 is heard saying “I will slit the throat of policemen like sheep,” and “give me a gun, I’ll shoot them.”
According to this report the law under which they are being prosecuted is for ” la calomnie et la rébellion contre les fonctionnaires”, slander and revolt against state employees”.
The Interior Ministry has justified its action by saying that the words of the songs, « contient des expressions et des gestes contraires à la morale, injurieux et menaçants envers les agents de la sécurité et les magistrats ». They contain expressions and gestures contrary to morality, that are insulting and threatening towards the Police and Magistrates.” (Jeune Afrique).
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Harlem Shake from Tunisia to Egypt.
There have been quick condemnations by the Islamist Ennahda-led government and other religious figures. The Minister of Education, Abdellatif Abid, a member of the once ‘socialist‘ party, Ettakatol, who has called the dancing ‘indecent‘.
From Tunis to Beirut or Cairo, Arab youths have posted YouTube videos where one person starts dancing before the video cuts to a large group of people, in costume or in their underwear, moving frenetically to electronic music.
While in the West the “Harlem Shake” is the latest bizarre — and hilarious — internet trend, the break-dancing performances have turned into a light-hearted way to protest against Islamists in several Arab countries.
Dozens of Tunisian university students scuffled this week against Salafi extremists, who were trying to prevent them from filming what they regard as “indecent” dancing.
There doesn’t appear to be much the Islamists can do to stop young people enjoying themselves and demanding freedom.
Charlie Hebdo Publishes Graphic Novel on Mohammed.
Charlie Hebdo has just published a graphic novel of the life of Mohammed.
More on the background, in-depth (from Yabiladi)
“It is a biography authorised by Islam since it was edited by Muslims,” said Stephane Charbonnier (‘Charb’), who was also the illustrator of the book whose front page shows the prophet leading a camel through the desert. AFP reports.
The author, Zineb El Rhazoui, is Franco-Moroccan.
She has previously defended Charlie’s cartoons of Mohammed, saying, “Charlie a caricaturé le pape, pourquoi pas Mahomet?» Charlie has caricatured the Pope, why not Mohammed? Here.
AFP do not publish this front page picture but we do,
We all know what happened last time Charlie published satirical cartoons of the founder of Islam…..
Joseph Anton. A Memoir. Salman Rushdie. A Secularist Review.
Joseph Anton. A Memoir. Salman Rushdie. Jonathan Cape. 2012.
In early September demonstrations against the video The Innocence of Muslims, took place across the world. Wednesday the 19th of the month saw the French leftist satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo published, to more protests, caricatures of Mohammed.
Two days later, Tahar Ben Jelloun argued, in Le Monde (21.9.12) against any concessions to Islamist inspired rage. He began by asking why Islam seemed so fragile that fiction, cartoons, or a bad film, His answer was the some Moslem countries encouraged this reaction to stave off creating states based on individual rights. Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses was the template for this strategy. It been used by the Iranian regime to quash any criticism of Islam, and to cement an “appartence absolue à la communité” (absolute adhesion to the community). Jelloun had no time for the provocations of Charlie. Yet he recommended ignoring them, and turning to the transcendental spirit of Islam.
Tareq Oubrou, the Rector of the Bordeaux Mosque, wrote on the same Le Monde Débats page, even more clearly against those who wished to suppress ‘blasphemy’. “La liberté de conscience et d’expression est un aquis occidental incontesté et incontenstable. Une avancée et un progrès philosophical-moral réels de notre humanité.” – Freedom of speech and conscience are established, unchallenged, and indisputable facts in the West. This is a step forward and real moral and philosophical progress for humanity”. Oubrou did not just repeat the standard argument (even sued by some Islamists, in the absence of a state ruled by the Sharia) that Muslims should submit to French law. All criticism of writing and art should be within their own terms, “La critique d’art se fait par l’art, la philosophie par la philosophie, and les idées par les idées.”
On the publication of Salman Rushdie’s Joseph Anton, at the end that Month Le Monde put the author on the front page followed by a long, respectful, article/interview. It dealt with Rushdie’s criticisms of “Actually Existing Islam” as well as the Satanic Verses and the Khomeini Fatwa that has marked his life.
The present work does not neglect this political-religious theme, “During the worst excesses of Soviet Communism…Western Marxists had tried to distance ‘actually existing Socialism’ from the True Faith, Karl Marx’s vision of equality and justice.” Now, with Communism’s faults there for all to see, “it was no longer possible to believe in a True Faith untainted by the crimes of the real world.” Yet, “as Islamic states forged new tyrannies, and justified many horrors in the name of God, a similar separation was being made by Muslims; so there was the ‘actually existing Islam’ of the bloody theocracies and there was the True Faith of peace and love.” (Page 356) The crisis is profound, and cannot be wished away by this appeal, Rushdie says, “something was eating away at the faith of his grandfather, corroding or corrupting it, making it an ideology of narrowness and intolerance, banning books, persecuting thinkers, erecting absolutions, turning dogma with which to beat the undogmatic. That thing needed to be fought and to fight it one had to name it and the only name that fitted was Islam.”(Pages 356-7) Read the rest of this entry »
100,000, Christians, Secular, and Muslims, Against Gay Marriage in France.
Libération reports that yesterday 100,000 people, across France, demonstrated against proposed legislation which will authorise gay marriage. The Bill, defended by the Women’s Rights Minsiter, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, will also authorise adoption by gay couples.
Civil partnerships are already recognised.
This was backed not only by ‘pro-family’ Catholic pressure groups, but official figures. In Lyon the ‘cardinal-archevêque’ Philippe Barbarin, took part in the march, as well as the Rector of the Lyon Grand Mosque, Kamel Kabtane.
Representatives of all the 6 major religions are opposed to the Bill, as this report indicates.
Non au mariage gay : pour une fois, les six principales religions de France – catholique, musulmane, juive, orthodoxe, bouddhiste et protestante – s’entendent sur un sujet !
No to gay marriage: for once the six main religions in france – Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Orthodox, Buddhist and Protestant – agree on something (More here on how they have organised the anti-gay marriage movement)
The movement has attracted even wider forces,
Des associations ou collectifs comme «Plus gay sans mariage» (homosexuels opposés au projet de loi), «La gauche pour le mariage républicain», les «Fils de France» (musulmans «patriotes»), ou l’association pro-vie Alliance Vita soutenaient ce mouvement.
Associations or collectives such “gayer without marriage” (homosexuals opposed to the proposed legislation), “the Left for republican marriage”, the “Sons of France (Muslim ‘patriots), and the anti-abortion Alliance Vita have backed the movement.
Today there will be another march, led by ‘intégrist’ (hard-line) Catholics,
L’institut Civitas, proche des catholiques intégristes, appelle à manifester dimanche après-midi à Paris contre le projet de loi ouvrant le mariage et l’adoption aux homosexuels.
The Civitas Institute, close to the Catholic ‘ intégristes’, has called to demonstrate this afternoon in Paris against the Bill, which will authorise gay marriage and adoption.
The organisers of the Saturday demonstration said it was a “Manif pour tous“, a demo for everybody.
Opinion polls indicate that 58% of French people are in favour of gay marriage, with 41% against.
However, last year 63% were in favour and 30% against.
On Saturday there were some counter-demonstrations and incidents as they was pushed back by the police.
The group, Inter-LGBT, has issued a statement deploring «les expressions homophobes qui fleurissent ces derniers jours» (homophobic expressions that have flourished in the last few days), and reminded the government that «les propos homophobes sont réprimés par la loi» (homophobic remarks are punishable by law).
