Unintended consequences

A press release from the European Commission:

The European Commission and the High Representative deplore today’s crime in Copenhagen costing the life of at least one citizen. One life is one too many. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families. Europe stands united with Denmark in upholding freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Europe will not be intimidated.

I hope it really won’t. This kind of shit is intimidating, make no mistake about that. That’s what it’s for and that’s what it does.

But one thing it also does is make more people loathe Islam with more of a passion. Maybe the disgusted parents and older siblings of these “jihadists” will eventually be able to get that through their heads – they’re not doing their beloved religion any favors.

A whole different level

The Guardian can do it, so why can’t the BBC?

One civilian has been killed and three police officers injured after armed men opened fire on a cafe in Copenhagen where a debate on Islam and free speech was being held.

The meeting was attended by Lars Vilks, the controversial Swedish artist who has faced death threats for caricaturing the prophet Muhammad. Also in attendance was François Zimeray, the French ambassador to Denmark.

That’s how you explain who Lars Vilks is without pretending he did something wrong and deserves to be pursued by theocrats who want to kill him. They could have left “controversial” out but at least they didn’t say he “sparked” or “provoked” or “set off” or “courted” anything. [Read more…]

One killed

Reuters says one person was killed in the shootings in Copenhagen.

One civilian was killed and three police were wounded on Saturday in shooting at a public meeting in the Danish capital Copenhagen attended by the controversial Swedish artist Lars Vilks, police and the Danish Ritzau news agency reported.

Danish police confirmed one civilian had been killed in a shooting and said the suspects had fled in a car.

Ritzau said both Vilks and the French ambassador, who was also attending, were both unharmed, but that three police had been wounded. The gathering was billed as a debate on art and blasphemy.

Just over a month ago, 17 people were killed in France in three days of violence that began when two Islamist gunmen burst into the Paris offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, opening fire in revenge for its publication of satirical images of the Prophet Mohammad.

Bad bad bad bad news. The implications are horrific.

From Copenhagen

Just publicly posted to Lars Vilks’s Facebook page by Jenny A Wenhammar who is at the Copenhagen blasphemy conference with him –

ART, BLASPHEMY AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH
– meeting in Copenhagen was attacked.

At the panel discussion about freedom of speech in Copenhagen organized by the committee of Lars Vilks, during the speech of Inna Shevchenko there were around 20-40 shots. In the room together with her were also Lars Vilks and French ambassador Francois Zimeray. Inna escaped with some people through the back door, and is at the moment at the police station. The meeting is said to continue and not be stopped by terror.

— with Lars Vilks and Inna Shevchenko.

[Read more…]

Shootings at blasphemy seminar in Copenhagen

The BBC reports:

Danish police have said three officers were shot and wounded at blasphemy debate in Copenhagen where the French ambassador was speaking.

Two gunmen are said to be still at large.

Reports say up to 40 shots were fired outside the venue in the Danish capital.

Controversial Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who has drawn caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, was also present at the debate.

Thanks, BBC, be sure as always to sneak in some condemnation of people who dare to do things like caricature Mo. Lars Vilks is “controversial” only among theocrats.

The area around the venue, reportedly a cafe, is under lockdown, the BBC’s Malcolm Brabant reports.

Police have erected cordons and are searching a nearby park, he adds.

Lars Vilks stoked controversy in 2007 by drawing pictures of the Prophet Muhammad dressed as a dog.

There it is again, only more so – Lars “stoked controversy” by doing something that should be perfectly ordinary.

But that’s not the point. The point is that they want to silence us all. It’s too bad the BBC can’t even report on an ongoing gun attack on people at a conference without sticking a target on some of those people.

 

 

No papers for you!

When parents go bad.

On Sep. 24, 2014, 18-year-old Alecia Faith Pennington left her family and childhood home with the help of her grandparents. Having been raised in a staunchly Christian, homeschooled family in Texas, she was ready to set off and pursue a new life.

You know, that needs a re-write.

On Sep. 24, 2014, 18-year-old Alecia Faith Pennington escaped her family and childhood prison with the help of her grandparents. Having been imprisoned in a fanatically Christian family in Texas that wouldn’t let her go to school, she was ready to escape and find a life.

[Read more…]

Isis efficiency

Just imagine the fun of being a Muslim in Raqqa. It’s a good deal more peppery than life in Chapel Hill, according to what the Independent says.

Residents of a city besieged by Isis have described living under strict bans on alcohol and cigarettes, with anyone caught smoking publicly flogged, handed huge fines and even reportedly executed.

I dislike smoking myself, but I don’t think people should be executed for it. [Read more…]

19 Muslims massacred in Peshawar

Meanwhile…let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture. The much much much bigger picture; the orders of magnitude bigger picture. Like this item from CNN today –

The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for a Friday attack on a Shiite Muslim mosque in Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan — a suicide bombing and gunfire assault that a hospital representative said killed 19 people.

The Islamist militant group said the attack was orchestrated by a commander who was behind December’s massacre of 145 people, including 132 children, at a Peshawar school.

[Read more…]