Police strengthen patrols around French Embassy, other buildings

Readers, please keep the discussion on this thread focused on Japan's reaction.

Freedom of speech is being terrorized. Glad to see Japanese support.

If one cannot laugh at one's own religion, then we have gone down hill.

Shalom

Am not defending what the terrorists have done here ... But I know for a fact that the Prophet Mohamed in Islam cannot be pictured in any way... Pictures are forbidden in Islam! So making a cartoon of any kind of him is very much unwelcomed by any Muslim believer, and us as human, we should be able to show some respect to any religion! You guys should scheck out these cartoons And see how pornographic some of them are...

Never heard of that magazine. After checking it out it turns out that it's more "bad taste" than satire. Just spiteful mockery. They were playing with fire and now they burned their feet. Not saying I'm defending the Muslim extremists but it was foreseeable that the mag would be targeted.

The world needs to wake up to this threat from islam, no tolerance, what ever happened to freedom of expression.

The west is watering down xmas etc so as not to offend them but I do not believe we should concede our way of life so as to appease them. They do not respect us or our way of life so why does the west continue to pander to there demands.

Islam really needs to develop a sense of humour. If other religions can take mockery on the chin why can't they?

Am not defending what the terrorists have done here ... But I know for a fact that the Prophet Mohamed in Islam cannot be pictured in any way... Pictures are forbidden in Islam! So making a cartoon of any kind of him is very much unwelcomed by any Muslim believer, and us as human, we should be able to show some respect to any religion! You guys should scheck out these cartoons And see how pornographic some of them are...

That's as may be but it is one thing to agree or disagree about whether cartoons are ok or offensive or permitted or whatever. but surely we both agree it is not something you kill people over......

@Wakarimasen

Pictures are forbidden in Islam!

Agreed. So Muslims shouldn't produce pictures, fine. What's that got to do with non-Muslims? Would Jews be justified in killing non-Jews for eating pork?

lacbrasi.. you hit the proverbial nail on the head.

You don't want to make pictures don't.

You don't want to eat bacon don't.

You want to wear certain clothing, in almost all circumstances, go ahead.

Just don't expect me to do the same, or abide by your rules.

Islam, and all religion, and any thing on any subject... for many reasons other than these horrific events has plenty to comment on, question, and satirise.

'Am not defending what the terrorists have done here ... But I know for a fact that the Prophet Mohamed in Islam cannot be pictured in any way... Pictures are forbidden in Islam! So making a cartoon of any kind of him is very much unwelcomed by any Muslim'

Fine. Let them venerate their prophet to their heart's content. The rest of us who are not 'in Islam' are under no obligation. France has something far more important than this to defend and attempts to bully them out of it are very much unwelcome.

It's quite sad that, for 95% of Islamists around the world it is a religion of peace and these few hundred thousand extremist loons are hell bent on ridding the world of infidels. The Islamic religion is as old as Christianity and the conflicts between these two regions have been playing out for a long time. The crusades run by the Christian church some 500 years ago were on a similar scale to what Hitler did to the Jews. However, for Islam to survive in the modern world it will have to evolve. There is no place in modern societies for the burqa, religios sexism and female genital mutilation. In recent years the spread of Islamic people has lead to major conflicts within societies.

I'm Australian and am shocked and ashamed by how far the Islamic communities have gone to change Australian culture to suit their needs. They escape the oppression and poverty of their native country and bring all their prejudices with them. There was a recent terrorist hostage situation in Sydney that resulted in a handful of deaths. Again, this was only from a minority extremist, but I see very little action from the main stream Islamists to denounce and seperate these extremists from their communities. Sadly, Islamists are encouraging the prejuces of the rest of the world by expecting the rest of the world to respect their religion without respecting the religions and societies of other countries. It's time for the Islamists who are part of the religion of peace to seperate themselves from the extremists and start living in the modern world. France was the first country to ban the burqa and many other countries should follow their lead, including Australia.

Freedom of expression? Bullying and making mockery of someone's god? LOL. I went through those cartoons and I think as a civilized human we must try to respect each others culture and religion, things will become much better. "I am not defending the killings, they should be hanged till the last breath". BTW I am Buddhist and this is what I want to express.

"we should be able to show some respect to any religion"

I disagree. Most countries in the west and also Japan support religious freedom, and they often offer special status to religious organizations such as tax breaks. But it is not very clear what constitutes a religion. The European Convention On Human Rights talks about freedom of religious belief, worship, practice and teaching. I support absolutely freedom of belief but less so practice and teaching. For example, I have no respect for religions that advocate physical punishments for transgressions, and don't think any special rights or freedoms should be given to such religious organizations. I'm not talking about the content of ancient religious texts such as the bible or koran. They are littered with descriptions of gross punishments. But I am talking about religions that still teach those parts of the texts as "correct". Such religions are not worthy of respect.

@Disillusioned

Agree with your main points. But Muhammad was born over 500 years after Christ's death. They're hardly contemporary religions....

@In_japan

What affords religious belief respect?

All ideas must be open to comment, question and enquiry.. always.

I anyway suggests their position deserves special treatment, special respect or are above comment then they are probably the ones in most dire need of questioning.

A secular society with a long history of satire, built on revolution and human rights struggle, has no obligation to pander to the needs of religiosity and it's inherent dogma.

Cartoonists offend people with their drawings. Terrorists offend people with murder.

These Muslim extremists are loving their so called 15 minutes of fame! A few months ago, it was a terrorist attack in Canada, then a few weeks ago in Sidney, Australia so now in Paris, France, should we be surprised??

Nations which quite often make distinction between good and bad form of terrorism , must stop funding in the name of containing terrorism anywhere , if we want to see an end to such incidents around the world. Financial support to such outfits must be cut off from all sides if the world has to live in peace.

One problem I have is with the way our political leaders react to these events. They may describe the perpetrators as vicious thugs or cowards, but that will have little effect on those that believe they are right in carrying out these acts. For whatever reason, perhaps out of fear of stirring controversy or causing offense, they seem to stop short of saying what I hope they really think. They should speak more starkly. These are words I would like to hear from our leaders:

"If you think it is right for women to be stoned to death for adultery, then you are sick and crazy. If you think someone shouldn't be allowed to follow a religion of their choice, then you are sick and crazy. If you think women are not entitled to education, then you are sick and crazy. If you think you will be rewarded in heaven for murdering a cartoonist, then either you are sick and crazy or Allah is sick and crazy. If you believe in any of these things, you have no right to consider yourself civilized."

I don't have to respect anyone's religion, particularly not one that is alien to my country and thinks it's okay to murder people in my country who disagree with its tenets. I have no respect for Islam's fairy tales, neither for their great prophet, you was nothing more than a mass murdering crack pot who started hearing voices. People leave their own countries for many reasons, just like I left mine. They should leave their religious hatred and barbaric behaviour behind when they enter freer societies. That is really basic, but the men in the mosques want to preach this rubbish and keep the hatred going in our countries. Meanwhile you won't find a church in Saudi Arabia of course.

Unfortunately there is a growing minority of Muslims who want to use the freedoms granted to them in our societies to try and remove the essential freedoms we enjoy. Western governments are stuck because there are so many muslims now, and we fear the bombing of our buses, subways and aircraft, as well as the shooting of our people. The death of Lee Rigby in the UK was disturbing, as were the attacks on July 7th 2005 in London. Now it is happening in France too.

The vast majority of muslims want to live in peace, of that I'm sure, but even those who want peace also want to be different from the local populations in western societies. They still want to teach their children that we are the infidel, make sure we don't marry them or get close to them and they will continue to adhere to the principles of their archaic religion. There is no real answer to this problem, but the immediate banning of faith schools in western countries might eventually lead to integration and the end of such terrible events.

"If you think it is right for women to be stoned to death for adultery, then you are sick and crazy. If you think someone shouldn't be allowed to follow a religion of their choice, then you are sick and crazy. If you think women are not entitled to education, then you are sick and crazy. If you think you will be rewarded in heaven for murdering a cartoonist, then either you are sick and crazy or Allah is sick and crazy. If you believe in any of these things, you have no right to consider yourself civilized."

That would be refreshing to hear from a politician but it is of course bad form to criticise religious beliefs. If I as an atheist were to come out with the statements you hear from some religious people I'd be rightly shouted down as an intolerant bigot as I have no holy book with which to justify such deeply held principles. Then again, probably the biggest reason why most politicians don't state the obvious is the fear of being murdered. That's about the size of it.

That is nonsense. The French embassy in Japan is not any danger. If the Japanese government wanted to take a stand for freedom of speech, it would encourange the domestic newspapers to reprint all the Charlie Hedbo cartoons which the editors were murdered for.

But I am not expecting that to happen, seeing that it cause a tsuname of diplomatic protests from countries like Pakistan and Saudi.

So they leave it at empty gestures.

What Jimizo said. Although I'm a Christian....

there is a court of law (in democracy) if they think they had been attacked or threatened by such cartoons. they can always file a case and argue it in court, so that those who wrote cartoons can be put in prison if they win the case! or else, they can also set up their own newspaper/journal and disprove to people the cartoon theory of their prophet. killing only shows true colors of great darkness.

I'm personally worried about when reprisals come. When will mosques be stormed and heinous crimes committed in these places

I am sort of wondering why this seems an issue suddenly. Europe has had ample experience with islamist attacks on freedom of speech. I am enough to remember the death fathwa on Salman Rushdie, and the attacks on all his translators (including in japan). Has everyone forgotten that? I also remember the cartoon riots and the death threats on the Danish Mohammed cartoonists. Has everyone else forgotten that? I also remember the firebombing of the Charlie Hedbo office 4 years ago, ditto. It astonishing to see that suddenly there is concern for freedom of speech. Isn´t it a bit late?

I do not expect to see Rushdies book, the Danish cartoons, or reprints of Charlie Hedbo in the mainstream press, so has Europe (and the US for that matter) not capitulated already?

No need to patrol! Just kill the attackers! No need to wait for 5 year long process. Shoot them like dogs. End of attack.

roughneck:

No, not end of story. They are happy to die for for their belief. And many more who who take their place are indoctrinated in France as you speak. A body count will not solve the issue of jihad.

However, for Islam to survive in the modern world it will have to evolve.

I would not put it that way though. With 225 million Muslims (and their number still growing) around the world Islam will survive just all right.

There is no place in modern societies for the burqa, religios sexism and female genital mutilation. In recent years the spread of Islamic people has lead to major conflicts within societies.

The potential problem seems to lie in the fact that in their efforts to be politically correct, western democracies face the threat of slowly losing their identities (cultural, religious, etc.) Diversity is a wonderful thing when all communities respect the cultural and religious traditions of the others and do not try to impose their own values on the people around them. Political correctness has the potential to alter that balance as societies give in to pressure created by the most vocal communities (which are sometimes newly formed or radical ones.) In an indirect way, satirical newspapers and magazines serve to maintain the thin border between cultural identity and tolerance (one of whose expressions is political correctness) by exercising their right to be outspoken and often politically incorrect.

It is, of course, a proper thing for the police to do.

But, let's keep it real:

The people who work at the French embassy in Tokyo have a greater chance of choking on mochi than they do suffering an attack by terrorists. Those here screeching about Islamic Jihad in Japan are simply delusional hysterics.

Sorry, the number of Muslims in the world is estimated almost ten times the figure I used above.

JTDanman:

can you remind us who "screeched about Jihad in Japan" here, in your mind? I don´t see a message that fits that description-