Panic Grips French Muslims as Mosques Suffer Reprisals

[Purveyor]

By Angeline Benoit and Geraldine Amiel Jan 8, 2015 11:50 AM ET

French Muslims are braced for a backlash after terrorists shouting Islamist slogans killed 12 people yesterday in Paris.

Community leaders are urging Muslims to stay vigilant and calm as fears of reprisals grow following the massacre at the offices of a satirical magazine. The leaders asked their community to avoid provoking other French people and join protests against the attack. They recommended that veiled women avoid going out alone.

“Panic is spreading,” said M’hammed Henniche, spokesman for UAM 93, an Islamic community group based in Seine-Saint-Denis, a working class Paris suburb. “More and more Muslim people are asking themselves, ‘What’s next?’”

The sense of intimidation was fueled since yesterday by attacks on religious buildings and the hard-line rhetoric from Front National leader Marine Le Pen who blames immigrants for many of France’s woes. The country’s leading Islamic groups met at Paris’s main mosque today and called on Muslims to hold a minute’s silence and for religious leaders to condemn the killings.

“The best message we can give against these terrorists is to show that the French are unified, that we won’t fall into their trap of pitting us against each other,” Mohammed Moussaoui, former head of the French Muslim Council, said on BFM TV today. “We must show our unity to fight our enemies, these barbarians who twist our religion to justify violence.”

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-08/panic-grips-french-muslims-as-mosques-suffer-reprisals.html

[enough]

1. Exactly as planned. (nt)

[Sheepshank]

5. your implication is almost as off....

I took that to mean that the attackers, the brothers, are enjoying the secondary effects of their killing spree...pitting one national against another.

[enough]

19. That is what I intended. (nt)

[get the red out]

3. I hope the police catch the killers soon

Bringing the actual murderers to justice might help some.

[HappyMe]

4. I can't imagine how afraid and worried

Muslim people are in France right now.

Just as the magazine employees didn't deserve to die, neither does your average French Muslim just going about their daily lives.

[pampango]

6. Euronews: Several mosque attacks reported following Charlie Hebdo massacre

In a televised press conference, he says the threat in France remains “very serious” as police continue the hunt for Wednesday’s killers but warns: “We shall not tolerate any threat against a place of religion or hostile demonstration against the French people because of their origin or their religion.”

Attacks on mosques were also reported at several locations as well as a criminal explosion at a kebab shop near a place of worship.

Several training grenades were thrown into the courtyard of a mosque in the French city of Le Mans.

One exploded, but no injuries were reported.

http://www.euronews.com/2015/01/08/several-mosque-attacks-reported-following-charlie-hebdo-massacre/

Thanks for the thread, Purveyor.

[Rex]

7. I would hate to be a secular Muslim right about now.

Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't.

[nichomachus]

8. I would hate to be a secular Muslim too

Because they "devout" Muslims would have no compunction about killing you. The Koran requires them to.

[Rex]

9. Exactly, you are fucked three ways from Sunday no matter which way you go.

Tell people you are a moderate and die at the hands of fundamentalists. Tell people you are a moderate and yet get treated like a terrorist. There is no win here.

[liberalhistorian]

10. Careful, your bigotry is showing.

No, the Koran does NOT "require" that, despite whatever source you're relying on says. Americans are woefully misinformed and ignorant about most non-Christian religions and it's tiresome. I am a seminary student who has also studied other religions in the course of my studies (it's required by my seminary, as it should be), which means I've studied the Koran as well as the bible and Torah commentary.

[nichomachus]

12. Careful, your ignorance is showing

Qur'an (4:89) - "They wish that you should disbelieve as they disbelieve, and then you would be equal; therefore take not to yourselves friends of them, until they emigrate in the way of God; then, if they turn their backs, take them, and slay them wherever you find them; take not to yourselves any one of them as friend or helper."

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/quran/012-apostasy.htm

[liberalhistorian]

14. You've taken that completely out of context,

just like people do with the Bible. But I'll be sure to tell my Muslim friends how much they're hated and misunderstood here.

BTW, there are seemingly countless similar verses in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, but the RW doesn't seem to ever even consider that. Oh, but it's different, I suppose, since it's THEIR religion. And most of those verses need to be placed in context as well. Context is critical.

[Rex]

15. So how would that passage be seen as okay in what context?

So what is the context for that passage to make it not about killing non-believers?

[Bluenorthwest]

16. What seminary teaches you to pass on harsh characterizations of things you have heard?

I'd also like to hear the context you speak of. Can you provide that?

[SomethingFishy]

17. Yes it's true.. Islam is just as fucked up as Christianity...

1 Samuel 15:3: "This is what the Lord Almighty says ... 'Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.' "

Psalm 137 "Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us / He who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks."

1 Peter 2:18: "Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel."

[Luminous Animal]

18. It is part of a longer passage which proscribes rules of self-defense.

Muslims, who were the minority population, were under attack and persecuted by non-Muslims.

The passage goes on to call for peace with those who are peaceful but to fight back against aggressors.

"Except those who join a group between whom and you there is a treaty (Of peace), or those who approach you with hearts restraining them from fighting you as well as fighting their own people. If Allah had pleased, He could have given them power over you, and they would have fought you: therefore if they withdraw from you but fight you not, and (instead) send you (guarantees of) peace, then Allah hath opened no way for you (to war against them)."

[riderinthestorm]

11. I hate this...