To think anyone who threatens a teenager is vile?

[Holyfork]

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/12/macron-wades-into-french-girls-anti-islam-row-saying-blasphemy-is-no-crime-mila

Mila, 16, from near Lyon, became a cause célèbre in January after she made a live broadcast on her Instagram account in which she spoke about her homosexuality. A Muslim commentator responded she was a “dirty lesbian” and a “dirty whore”. She responded by posting a video diatribe against Islam.

Her outburst sparked death threats and social media users posted her personal information online, including where she was attending school. The public prosecutor has opened an investigation for “death threats, threats to commit a crime and harassment” against her attackers and a separate inquiry into whether she had “provoked religious hatred”, which is punishable by the law.

Abdallah Zekri, general delegate of the French Council for the Muslim Faith (CFCM), told French radio: “This girl knows exactly what she has done … they who sow, reap.” Zekri added that the teenager’s comments were not covered by freedom of expression but were insulting and provocative. Afterwards, Mohammed Moussaoui, the new head of the CFCM, said criticism of Islam had to be accepted and no remarks justified death threats. “We have to accept all the debates and refuse all violence,” Moussaoui wrote.

I really hope those threatening her are found and prosecuted.

[StiffUpperQuip]

Everyone involved are idiots. Having a go at a teenager is bad, just as a teenager who should know better shouldn't be posting religious hatred. As I say. All are idiots.

[RufustheLanglovingreindeer]

You are not being unreasonable the teenyist tiniest bit holy

[mbosnz]

a teenager who should know better shouldn't be posting religious hatred

In response to the extremely personal homophobic rhetoric posted in response to her live broadcast about being homosexual.

[JosefKeller]

I would have thought anyone who threatens anyone is vile

[Emijen]

YANBU at all

[Holyfork]

@StiffUpperQuip

Threatening a teenager so that she has tho change schools is a lot worse that criticising a religion in response to homophobic insults, though.

[mencken]

I don't like that religion is above criticism and deserves respect. PEOPLE deserve respect, beliefs do not.

Charlie Hebdo, anyone?

[ConkerGame]

YANBU. Death threats against anyone are awful but against a teenager should be considered a very serious crime.

She might not have gone about criticising the religion in the most uncontroversial manner, but absolutely no religion is above criticism or debate. And she was only responding to an attack on her sexuality in the first place, so I think she was completely entitled to defend herself. The only people using “hate speech” were those insulting her for her sexuality.

[AskingQuestionsAllTheTime]

Criticising an entire religion for the unpleasant behaviour of a few members of it (or in this case apparently a single member of it?) indicates stupidity as well as unpleasant bigotry.

There are plenty of ?Christians? who are just as homophobic and loathsome as such ?Muslims? and who make Christianity just as deserving of an anti-Christian diatribe.

And just to muddy the waters for us when we are taking sides and talking only in black and white, some of both minority sects within the religions in question are adolescents. I wonder slightly whether the Muslim who posted the offensive comments was an adult really.

Death threats on the other hand are always criminal, and the criminals who utter them should be found if possible and punished legally. Hate-speech (also including the written word) is also criminal and should also be punished legally.

Nobody comes out of this looking good apart from Mohammed Moussaoui and the public prosecutor.

[mbosnz]

I'm not taking sides. I'm pointing out that her comments were not made out of the blue, but in response to a fairly vicious attack. So, I don't know about indicating stupidity, but certainly being ill thought out, and most probably made in the heat of a very extreme moment.

As you say, Islam has no monopoly on homophobia. And to deride an entire religion and its followers, when not all ascribe to those views, is not sensible.

Mohammed Moussaoui and the Public Prosecutor are definitely to be commended for how they have handled this incident.

[FizzyIce]

If you’re going to post inflammatory stuff on social media then you need to be prepared .
Everyone involved in this come across as a fucking moron .

[NotALurker2]

Isn't teenagers saying negative things about religion part of growing up?

[Holyfork]

If you’re going to post inflammatory stuff on social media then you need to be prepared .

For people to post pictures of your house and school online? And to threaten to wait outside your school to rape and kill you?

[IhateBoswell]

I don't like that religion is above criticism and deserves respect. PEOPLE deserve respect, beliefs do not

Agreed.

[AlternativePerspective]

Thing is, anyone who calls someone a hoar online was never going to receive criticism well.

There are no excuses for posting death threats with pictures etc towards anyone but the point at which the name calling started might have been a good time to walk away.

The thing with social media is that we have no control who posts there, so while theoretically she should have been able to respond as she wished, the outcome was unpredictable. That doesn’t make her wrong, but it does make her young and potentially somewhat impulsive.

Do we know for instance that the person who responded wasn’t themselves a teenager?

[Gatehouse77]

Why do you make the distinction about threatening a teenager being vile?

Any threat or act of violence is vile regardless of whom it's against, surely?

[FancyPants20]

I love* that the response to a teenager saying that Islam is a violent religion is to make death and rape threats against that teenager. Convincing.

*not actually loving

[ChameleonCircuit]

Sort of making her point for her.

[Holyfork]

@Gatehouse77. Good point. Maybe I shouldn't have made the distinction. Threatening anyone, regardless of age, is disgusting.

Do we know for instance that the person who responded wasn’t themselves a teenager?

No but that doesn't make it okay. She had to be under police protection so clearly there was a real threat of her coming to harm.

[Holyfork]

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/french-teenager-mila-sparks-debate-on-the-country-s-prejudices-1-6512428

She went on: "My life is clearly on break. Whether it's my social life, on social networks, in my schooling […] I was not safe in my establishment [school]," she told Yann Barthès. "I could have been burned with acid, I could have been hit. I was threatened with being stripped naked in public, even being buried alive. I was not safe, I had to drop out of school."

Maybe it was a teenager making the threats but it's still disgusting.

[BigChocFrenzy]

Threats of violence are unacceptable, whether against someone of 16 or 60

[CommanderShephard]

I hope they find the fuckers who made the threats and lock them up.

[HeresMe]

Let's be honest surely a religion should be able to put up with critism, why is Islam so hateful to anyone who criticises them. That's the problem Islam is really dangerous to free speech more so than any religion.

If you choose to believe in bullshit ( this is all religions especially the abrahmic ones) then prepare to be challenged on it.

The people doing rthisare disgusting.

[Holyfork]

Let's be honest surely a religion should be able to put up with critism

You'd think, would you? But even a member of the French Council for the Muslim Faith said that she reaped what she'd sowed.

[HeresMe]

Yep I'd think but hey Muslim men threatening teenagers blimey no one best mention rotherham.

These scumbags haven't learnt have they.