llions of people took to the streets of Paris and cities across France on Sunday to rally in defense of free speech and against terrorism in the wake of Wednesday's deadly attack on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The French Interior Ministry told the Associated Press that 3.7 million marched throughout France, making the demonstrations the largest in the country's history.

Adding to the symbolic weight of the demonstrations, more than 40 world leaders joined the start of the Paris march, linking arms in an act of solidarity. But as Reporters Without Borders points out, their policies at home are far from compatible with the solidarity for free speech on display throughout France.

The organization said Sunday that it was "appalled by the presence of leaders from countries where journalists and bloggers are systematically persecuted such as Egypt (which is ranked 159th out of 180 countries in RWB's press freedom index), Russia (148th), Turkey (154th) and United Arab Emirates (118th)."

"We must demonstrate our solidarity with Charlie Hebdo without forgetting all the world’s other Charlies," Reporters Without Borders Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said in a statement. "It would be unacceptable if representatives of countries that silence journalists were to take advantage of the current outpouring of emotion to try to improve their international image and then continue their repressive policies when they return home. We must not let predators of press freedom spit on the graves of Charlie Hebdo."


http://mic.com/articles/108166/one-student-s-epic-tweets-call-out-the-biggest-hypocrites-marching-for-free-speech-in-paris

Representatives at the forefront of the movements for Black lives and racial justice have taken a historic trip to Palestine this week to connect with activists living under Israeli occupation.

Black journalists, artists and organizers representing Ferguson, Black Lives Matter, Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), and more have joined the Dream Defenders for a 10-day trip to the occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel.

The trip comes after a year of highly-publicized repression in Ferguson, the Gaza Strip, and West Bank including East Jerusalem, as well as solidarity between these places.

Read more at EBONY http://www.ebony.com/news-views/dream-defenders-black-lives-matter-ferguson-reps-take-historic-trip-to-palestine#ixzz3OVfu9sgX



http://www.ebony.com/news-views/dream-defenders-black-lives-matter-ferguson-reps-take-historic-trip-to-palestine#.VLJY0tLF_E1

A hundred years ago, it would have been unimaginable to have a pair of Muslim men enter a cafe or a public transportation vehicle, and then blow themselves up, killing dozens. Or to massacre the staff of a satirical magazine in Paris! Things like that were simply not done.

When you read the memoirs of Edward Said, or talk to old men and women in East Jerusalem, it becomes clear that the great part of Palestinian society used to be absolutely secular and moderate. It cared about life, culture, and even fashion, more than about religious dogmas.

The same could be said about many other Muslim societies, including those of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Egypt and Indonesia. Old photos speak for themselves. That is why it is so important to study old images again and again, carefully.

Islam is not only a religion; it is also an enormous culture, one of the greatest on Earth, which has enriched our humanity with some of the paramount scientific and architectural achievements, and with countless discoveries in the field of medicine. Muslims have written stunning poetry, and composed beautiful music. But above all, they developed some of the earliest social structures in the world, including enormous public hospitals and the first universities on earth, like The University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco.

The idea of ‘social’ was natural to many Muslim politicians, and had the West not brutally interfered, by overthrowing left-wing governments and putting on the throne fascist allies of London, Washington and Paris; almost all Muslim countries, including Iran, Egypt and Indonesia, would now most likely be socialist, under a group of very moderate and mostly secular leaders.



http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/09/who-should-be-blamed-for-muslim-terrorism/

In their unstinting zeal to safeguard Israel's stranglehold over the Palestinians, members of Congress may have inadvertently set the stage for the materialization of Israel's nightmare scenario: the collapse of the Palestinian Authority (PA). As the new 114th Congress gets underway, here's how the law of unintended consequences could unfold over the next few years.

In the consolidated appropriations bill passed last month, Congress renewed a provision that would cut off all economic assistance to the PA if "the Palestinians initiate an International Criminal Court [ICC] judicially authorized investigation, or actively support such an investigation, that subjects Israeli nationals to an investigation for alleged crimes against Palestinians."

The unexpected move by Mahmoud Abbas, chair of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to sign the Rome Statute last week may force Congress to deal with the ramifications of this provision sooner than anticipated. Palestine is now set to join the ICC in April and, according to the Palestinian news agency Ma'an, it could file charges against Israel as early as that month, "with legal preparations to that end already well under way."

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international/228995-could-congressional-sanctions-on-palestinians-backfire-for#.VLD3yNpC1HY.twitter

from today's Democracy Now:

"Yes, and the—which, I mean, made something like over 75 people killed, young people in Norway—and the massacre perpetrated by also ultra-Zionist killer Baruch Goldstein in Hebron in 1994, which made something like 29 or more people killed. Again, these are, I mean, appalling acts of what I described some years ago as a clash of barbarisms, because that’s what we are getting—the barbarism of the strong, of course, being the primary responsible in this awful dynamics.
And it leads—it leads, you know, to a counterbarbarism on the side of those who see themselves as the downtrodden, the oppressed."

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/1/9/gilbert_achcar_on_the_clash_of

Knee-jerk lefty reaction to Paris massacre: blame it on US foreign policy.
I'm not defending US foreign policy but killing journalists or killing school children, or pouring acid on school children, or beating, killing and raping women is not opposition to US foreign policy. If they want to mount a symbolic protest of US policy, why don't they attack a US army base?

Plenty of them around.
But it is easier to attack defenseless people.

Get real. These are not freedom fighters. These are murderers.

Does anyone remember El Salvador and Nicaragua in the '80's? Brutal US foreign policy did all it could to keep these countries under dictator's hands. People resisted the US. They did not kill journalists or school children.

Palestinian journalist Muhammad Daher did not live to see the birth of his son and will never see his one-year-old daughter grow up.

A financial editor for Al-Resaleh newspaper, the 27-year-old father and husband died after being injured during Israel’s brutal assault on the Shujaiya district of Gaza City this past summer.

His wife, Shaima, recalled that their three-story house collapsed on top of them when Israeli occupation forces attacked the area with heavy tank shelling on 20 July. “I was stuck under the house, under a pillar,” she told The Electronic Intifada. “I was pregnant at the time, and I really don’t know how I survived.”

http://electronicintifada.net/content/pregnant-woman-under-rubble-survived-deadly-israeli-attack-gaza/14145

A group:
"Groups often serve as safe havens for members who share similar interests and viewpoints."

view the responses to my post, here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/113492068

and tell me if this group serves as a "safe haven".
People who make vile and fractitious comments are not creating a safe haven, and should be removed.