March 21, 2007

Back by popular demand: blasphemy!

Mr. Phillipe Val is publisher and editor of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly in Paris, writes that a "French court is tomorrow expected to decide whether I and the newspaper I edit, Charlie Hebdo, committed a crime by publishing cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed."

Jacque Chirac, to no one's great surprise, was quick to grovel at the feet of the Muslim plaintiffs:
After the cartoons appeared, the Muslim groups attacked me by filing suit against me on racism charges. President Jacques Chirac, who campaigned for this just-completed trial, offered them the services of his own personal lawyer, Francis Szpiner.
The lack of understanding of the fundamental importance of free speech in the West is enough to send one spiraling into clinical depression.

We'll watch for the outcome.

That said, Mr. Val, who ought to know better, strangely appears to approve of laws that penalize "insults" and "racism," two rather slippery concepts. ("The limits to this freedom are already fixed by laws that . . . penalize racism, insults and defamation.")

Adult people ought to be able to absorb verbal abuse without experiencing melt down, let alone inviting them to take up valuable court time. And good luck figuring out what "racism" means these days. Caucasians disapproving of the "informal migration" (ht to Baron Bodissey) of "Hispanics" who are Caucasians are certainly not guaranteed exemption from this most dreaded of accusations. Objecting to the behavior of certain Hispanics of whatever color or racial mixture is, of course, "racism" of the worst kind.

Like "fascism," "racism" these days means little more than being "mean." The person doing a nut roll on the floor of some public building being, of course, the final arbiter of what "real" racism is.

Oh, note the use of expensive litigation by Muslims to silence critics. The same tactic that The Flying Imams are using here in the U.S. to cite but one example. Watch for more of these efforts to use our legal system against us by intimidating Americans who stand up to Muslim bullshit.

"Modern Blasphemy." By Philippe Val, Wall Street Journal Online (subscription), 3/21/07.

UPDATE (3/22/07):

Mr. Val was acquitted.

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