France - Machine Gun attack on magazine Charlie Hebdo #1

[Waddles]

Just heard a policewoman was run down by a car on purpose outside the Elysee palace here. She's OK. Young 19-year-old driver from suburbs says he got scared and panicked.

 

[wendiesan]

To put this into perspective for everyone. Studies concluded that there were only less than 2000 women in the whole of France wearing the niqab or the burka, most wearing headscarves, the hijab or no headdress. The number wearing full face covering showing only the eyes or not showing the eyes (burka) was 0.03% of muslim women in France. This law also banned masks, helmets and balaclavas in public such as streets, parks, shops, museums, public transport. Covering the face fully prevents identification of a person, which is seen as a security risk, and it's a social issue in a society where communication and facial expression are relied on. People can be afraid and confused faced with someone who is fully veiled revealing only the eyes, or worse bars over the eyes.
I realise this can be seen as unfairly discriminating against Muslim women and encroaching on human rights but what needs to be understood is that France is extremely secular. There is no allusion to god or religion in public places. Since 2004 conspicuous religious symbols such as Christian crosses, Jewish caps cannot be worn in schools or in courts. There was mixed reaction in France about this law and at the time outspoken Muslim women scholars spoke out in favour of the ban. But in a secular country like France full facial covering cannot work. You can't have someone in a shop wearing one of the two dresses in the middle of the attached photo. It's true that hidden behind the passing of this law is not only the idea that everyone should conform to French values of secularism but also the perception that women are oppressed wearing these full veils and someone is making them do it, even if they don't think so themselves, and I have to admit I am one of those who feel that way too. I have nothing against the headscarf and hijab which I find beautiful - it's the niqab and burka that disturb me to be honest, just like balaclavas!

Has anyone here seen women in burkas in public in their country who were residents, not tourists? How did you feel?

Yes, I have. I've seen a woman on a hot summer day wearing a niquab eating in a Mcdonalds with her little son (t shirt and shorts) and her husband (t shirt and shorts). I've seen them hauling groceries while their husbands stroll ahead of them. I've seen them push people out of the way with their baby strollers.
I've seen women in Niquabs and Tschadors walking with other women in the same costume or with their husbands and children.
Never in the company of a woman NOT in the robes.

I see it as antisocial. IMO, it's a sign that her family does not want to assimilate and become part of our culture. I think it's a sign that her family apparently believes she should be invisible. It's a signal that her family is going to follow religious law rather than the existing laws of the country in which they are living. It's a sign that the woman and her family reject the culture of the community into which they have injected themselves. IMO

IMO, it's a way of bringing the oppression and repression of theocracies into a democracy in order to destroy the democratic systems of government.
I do not want Sharia laws to be accepted in North America in any way, and I don't want any legislation that erodes the rights for which women have had to fight so hard. I don't want clitorectomies to be first considered a "cultural" practice for a minority, and then gradually a requirement for female acceptability. I don't want my granddaughter to have cease being a person, to be forced to wear a cage, because she is female in a country that appeases bullies hiding behind a multicultural shield and pseudo religious sensibilities.

And this seemingly innocent costuming of women in a way which denies their individuality is just that. They are a test to see how far these bullies can push a host government and people to accept the introduction of Sharia laws and cultures. We accept these costumes without a fight, then maybe we'll accept blasphemy laws that make drawing a cartoon of some religious figure a crime that comes with a death sentence. We accept these costumes, then we'll accept second and third wives as legal instead of bigamy. We accept these costumes and maybe we'll change so that half the population won't be allowed to own property in their own names.

Aside from that, how do we know that the person wearing this costume is a woman. We don't. We don't know what is strapped to the body underneath that veiling. The person, of whatever gender, who is wearing a Niquab or a Burka is a potential weapon, a public safety hazard, and an affront to civil freedoms.

The headscarves are, IMO, only beautiful if they are there as a freely made choice.

 

[Fifth Avenue]

Afghan Taliban condemn Mohammed cartoons, hail Paris gunmen http://t.co/sUEdCLmngO


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[Elley Mae]

Paris police seek new suspect in terror attacks

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe...ew-suspect-20150115-story.html#navtype=outfit

Attacker Amedy Coulibaly, 32, rented the small house south of Paris in the suburb of Gentilly about two weeks ago, and a search by detectives from the Paris Criminal Brigade and a special police anti-terrorism unit resulted in the seizure of a scooter that allowed them to identity the new potential accomplice, according to Le Parisein.

Spanish officials investigating an alleged terrorist cell that supported the Paris attacks found evidence that Coulibaly stayed in Madrid from December 30 to January 2 , according to the Catalan daily La Vanguardia.

Coulibaly was accompanied by an unidentified person, the newspaper reported, noting that Turkish officials have confirmed that his girlfriend passed through Madrid at the same time.

 

[Coldpizza]

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