On Friday, a Tunisian Islamic terrorist ran into Notre-Dame de Nice in France and beheaded a woman and stabbed two others who also died in the name of Allah. This attack followed the beheading of a teacher in Paris who showed a cartoon of Mohammed to her class. Another Islamic jihadist murdered her in the name of taking revenge for the insult to his prophet. In response to these vicious attacks on innocent people exercising their freedom of speech and religion in a free Western country, the Associated Press decided to go with this headline blaming France’s secularism and colonialism for the brutal attacks:
How short was France's skirt? pic.twitter.com/KuXdZI6hOt
— Megan Fox (@MeganFoxWriter) November 1, 2020
After the controversial take started going viral on Twitter, the AP deleted the tweet, as if to claim it did not mean what it had “reported.” The outlet replaced the word “incite” with “spark,” which is a synonym for “incite.” It really doesn’t make it any better, but that’s what AP did.
They've now changed the headline. Does this make it any better? Really? "Incite" became "sparks" pic.twitter.com/cBGk5ASPYh
— Megan Fox (@MeganFoxWriter) November 1, 2020
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The AP tried to explain the decision to delete the tweet and not the whole terrible article, acting as though it was the word “incite” that bothered people.
This replaces a tweet about France and the Muslim world that asked why France “incites” anger. The word was not intended to convey that France instigates anger against it.
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 1, 2020
If the AP did not “intend to convey that France instigates anger against it” then the editors should explain this:
The official French doctrine of colorblindness is intended to ignore ethnic and religious backgrounds and to have all French citizens seen as equally French. In reality, the ideal often fuels discrimination against those who look, dress or pray differently from the historically Catholic majority, instead of preventing it.
Equality is now a bad thing to want for all your citizens, according to the AP. Muslims must be treated differently than others in order not to kill you while you’re praying at church.
Muslims are disproportionately represented in France’s poorest, most alienated neighborhoods, as well as its prisons. That has bred angry outcasts who see their homeland as sinful and disrespectful toward Islamic traditions, or simply racist against Arab and other immigrants from lands that once enriched the French empire.
I never thought I’d see the day when the American media was concerned about sinfulness. The very same article, however, points out that crucifixes were torn off the walls of French schools in order to separate church and state. But the author seems to not see the similarities between that and banning headscarves.
The often-misunderstood concept of French secularism is inscribed in the country’s constitution. It was born in a 1905 law separating church and state that was meant to allow the peaceful coexistence of all religions under a neutral state, instead of a government answering to powerful Roman Catholic clerics. Crucifixes were at one point torn from classroom walls in France amid painful public debate…
As the number of Muslim [sic] in France grew, the state imposed secular rules on their practices. A 2004 [law] banning Muslim headscarves and other ostentatious religious symbols in schools remains divisive, if not shocking to many outside France. A 2011 law banning face veils made Muslims feel stigmatized anew.
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Banning Muslim headscarves is “divisive” and “shocking” and “stigmatizing,” but ripping crucifixes off the walls is just good government practice. It doesn’t seem to occur to the media that the state also imposed secular rules on Christian practices by removing the crucifixes. If anything, France is upholding the rules equally and not offering special treatment to one religious group just because they’re more willing to stab someone or blow something up than the other religious group.
That takes guts. And because France is standing up to Islamic terrorism and intimidation, the country is paying the price. It isn’t because they’re doing anything wrong. It’s because they’re doing it exactly right. Bowing down to Islamic extremism, as we do here in America by allowing Muslim faith practices to be not only practiced in government schools but actually taught to American children with American tax dollars is downright idiocy.
The West cannot champion free speech while at the same time acquiescing to ridiculous demands that artists not draw Mohammed. The Left only seems to value secularism when using it against Christians. Why is that? I thought secularism was the pinnacle of enlightenment. Aren’t we told we must remove all symbols and whispers of Christ in the classroom in order to be “inclusive?” If that’s the case, I don’t see how they can blame France for doing just that with all religions.
The AP also blames President Emmanuel Macron for taking a hard line against Islamist extremists.
That’s in part because of a law Macron plans to introduce to crack down on Islamist fundamentalists he contends are turning some communities against the state and threatening pillars of French society, including schools. In the wake of recent extremist attacks, his government expelled Muslims accused of preaching intolerance and shut down groups seen as undermining French laws or norms.
The words the president uses have provoked outrage as well. He said the planned law was aimed at Islamist “separatism,” which raised fears of the further alienation of French Muslims.
At a memorial for a teacher beheaded for showing the prophet caricatures to his class, Macron gave a speech extolling tolerance, knowledge and religious freedom. But he drew ire, including from Turkey’s president, for saying, “We won’t renounce the caricatures” and that France should “diminish Islamists.”
This makes me like Macron far more than I did before. Is there any reason in the world the president of France should not expel Muslim hate preachers inciting bloody attacks and trying to undermine French authority? What sane person wouldn’t? You have killers preying on your people while they pray in church. If you don’t act to stop that, you’re some kind of psycho.
Good for Macron for standing up for free speech and refusing to “renounce” cartoons. I hope to never see the day when a leader of a free country stands against a cartoon. Diminish away, Mr. President, because Islamists need to be roundly mocked, condemned, denounced, and imprisoned when they cause chaos in a free land. Let them go back to those ancient places where they can practice their barbarism where it is the law of the land and stop trying to invade the West. The West will not bend to Islamic tyranny no matter how much the AP and media want them to.
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