Big Protest in Pakistan with people shot

[Ninurta]

I get what you're saying and as a freedom loving American I totally agree. You can't allow the reactions of Islam rule over your free speech. That's not my point.

What I'm saying is why would some publication in France bother to do this? They know the trouble they got into the last few times, are they trying to start a war with extreme Islam? Why would they let these extremists in their country and then bait them with insulting cartoons?

(CNN)For the second time in as many weeks, France is reeling from the devastation of a brutal knife attack that authorities are ascribing to an Islamist terrorist.
On Thursday, three people were stabbed to death at a church in the French city of Nice. While the investigation is still underway, French President Emmanuel Macron said after the incident that the country was under attack by "Islamist and terrorist madness."

France 'will not give into terrorism' says Macron, after three stabbed to death in church attack
Thursday's killings follow the murder on October 16 of Samuel Paty, a teacher in the northern Paris suburb of Éragny. He was beheaded after showing cartoons published in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo depicting the Prophet Mohammed to students in his class. An 18-year-old Chechen refugee admitted to the killing in a social media post before being shot dead by police.
The name Charlie Hebdo will be familiar to anyone who remembers the terror attacks that took place in 2015, when gunmen forced their way into the magazine's offices in Paris and murdered 12 people. The attackers allegedly said they were avenging the Prophet Mohammed. Charlie Hebdo, a small magazine known for provocative and often offensive images and articles, had published caricatures of the Prophet in 2012.

www.cnn.com

That's at least 16 people killed in France because some publisher wants to sling mud at Mohammad, one was a teacher that was brutally beheaded. Here in the states, I could be doing this, you could too, but what for? Are they trying to get innocent people killed because "free speech"? That's nothing I want to be a part of, free speech or not.

A scathing article about the life of Mohammad, something with a valid point that needed to be made, I can understand taking a chance with that, but cartoons for the sake of what, some low brow humor? How many innocent lives is that worth?

ETA: I have great respect for how you view your freedom of speech and I absolutely believe you have the ability, means, and will to back it up. I think that's part of what makes the U.S. so great, it's people don't take shit. I grew up in Detroit, I know that attitude very well.

I guess the bottom line is just because you could use freedom of speech to cause a fight that will get people killed, would you and if so why?

Not being French, I can't say for sure why they did it. My best guess is that they are still reeling over the Charlie Hebdo attacks, where a publisher was attacked for substantially the same thing. Maybe if that is the case, it's a Gallic means of saying "Fuck off, Islam. You ain't gonna shut us up, and here's some more proof that you won't". We do have to draw a distinction between their government that is inviting more trouble in, and their people, many of whom appear to have had enough.

Now, for myself, whether I would use freedom of speech to start a fight is strongly dependent on the circumstances. I probably wouldn't do it just to stir shit and get a fight going in an otherwise peaceful world, but if I were already under attack by an adversary who had already started the fight, I likely wouldn't back down in the slightest, either. Whether people would get killed in that case is immaterial - they would probably get killed anyhow, with or without my input.

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