Maybe it's just me
Is it a bit rich for people who cut off people's heads for the perceived crimes of still other people to be kidnapping in protest of 'aggressions against personal freedoms'? Doesn't that fall near to the dear old adage of copulation for virginity?
Do they really have to mention an ultimatum? Maybe you're thinking that they're going to go all "multilateral" and, after 48 hours, issue a slightly more insistant request? For my part, I'm guessing that they're choosing the strategy that's a proven winner.
Oh, you lily-livered appeasemonkey - you did not just say that.
My bad, I guess you did.
Hope what, exactly? That they're kidding? That they consider the French media too loyal an ally to actually attack?
Oh. Hope springs eternal. I actually do hope these two journalists can be recovered intact, and even breathing. However, if France caves in to make it happen, France shifts from "despised" to "irredeemably despised" in my estimation.
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Islamic militants released a brief tape showing two French journalists kidnapped recently in Iraq and said they were holding the men to protest a French law banning headscarves in schools, according to footage aired Saturday by an Arab TV station.
The station, Al-Jazeera, said the group gave the French government 48 hours to overturn the law but mentioned no ultimatum.
Do they really have to mention an ultimatum? Maybe you're thinking that they're going to go all "multilateral" and, after 48 hours, issue a slightly more insistant request? For my part, I'm guessing that they're choosing the strategy that's a proven winner.
Asked if France was willing to reconsider the headscarf law, the spokesman said: "I don't think we are at that point for the moment."
Oh, you lily-livered appeasemonkey - you did not just say that.
"We must see what the claim is and how credible it is," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We are waiting to learn more."
My bad, I guess you did.
Philippe Necand, deputy chief editor at RTL radio, noted that the name of the group cited by Al-Jazeera is similar to the group that supposedly killed the Italian reporter.
"We are worried when we see what happened to the Italian," Necand told AP. "We can always hope."
Hope what, exactly? That they're kidding? That they consider the French media too loyal an ally to actually attack?
In April, 40-year-old French TV journalist Alex Jordanov was freed after four days in captivity in Iraq during which he was repeatedly interrogated by captors accusing him of being an Israeli spy.
Oh. Hope springs eternal. I actually do hope these two journalists can be recovered intact, and even breathing. However, if France caves in to make it happen, France shifts from "despised" to "irredeemably despised" in my estimation.
posted by Doug at 3:07 AM
++ New Post
4 Comments:
Well, they [French politicians] did insist on negotiations as opposed to taking any physical action against terrorist groups, so here's there chance to prove just how effective negotiating with these people can be :)
And did they really ban headscarves in school? Geeze... to think I complained about not being able to wear t-shirts that featured sex, drugs and rock and roll back in my school days!
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And did they really ban headscarves in school? Geeze... to think I complained about not being able to wear t-shirts that featured sex, drugs and rock and roll back in my school days!
I think I had the same t-shirts! My Beastie Boys T (first tour) was, as I recall, especially not welcome...
Indeed they did pass such a ban last spring, and it caused quite a stir. While it is not in fact so narrow (it includes crosses, stars of David, other displays of religion), it was the hijab that it was intended to eliminate. My favorite French dissident deconstructed the doubletalk (nuance) as follows:
« Everybody has the right to express his faith as long as he respects the laws of the Republic inside the Republic's schools »
And there it goes. The rhetorical tail that is.
To the extent of my humble knowledge, the very term "freedom of religion" is never used as such in the extensive amount of texts that constitute the laws of the Republic. Yet it is indeed, as emphasized by our emphatic Prime, defined as a constitutional right, under the affirmation of the freedom of conscience and of freedom of cult (or worship), as early as in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man (Art. 10) and later in the first article of the (famous) 1905 law of separation of the church and the state:
For those of you who are zippier than the average French Prime, the conclusion is already obvious.
For the French Primes among you, more explanation might come in handy. So bear with me Jean-Pierre, here we go: If, as you put it, everybody has the right to express his faith and if, as we just saw, the said expression of one's faith is indeed a right acknowledged and defended by the laws of the Republic, then expressing one's faith inside the Republic's school can't be considered as a lack of respect for the laws of the Republic, for it is indeed nothing but the expression of a right enshrined in the, well... Laws of the Republic, precisely.
Sometimes the obvious is not quite so obvious to the French. He's great at pointing it out.
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