arrest of Dieudonne

[MajesticWhine]

So this guy Dieudonne has been arrested when he said he felt like Coulibaly (the Charlie Hebdo gunmen) and will face a trial. I am not too sure why this amounts to a supporting terrorism. Obviously this guy has a record for racism and is an absolute arse. But isn't this clamping down on "hate speech" another infringement of freedom? Was he actually encouraging terrorism? Any thoughts?

He has long form on antisemitic statements and basically seems to delight in riling the french establishment. Feelings must obviously be running high in france . You can be arrested for hate speech here, maybe you can too in France, I don't actually know.

Coulibaly is the guy who shot the people in the Kosher supermarket, an attack intrinsically aimed at the Jewish community. There is a strong anti semitic undercurrent in some sections of the North African/ Muslim population in France. I grew up in Algeria, anti semitism was endemic there.

Ok, my mistake about Coulibaly, was the supermarket guy not the Hebdo guys, so in effect it was an anti-semetic comment.
I think Dieudonne is a disgusting individual. I do think care is needed about freedom of speech though, because there is danger of double standards, and the whole principle falls down. If a muslim posts saying they "feel like Kouachi" - would they be arrested for defending terrorism? What about everyone who posted 'je suis Kouachi' tweets?

Surely it has to be about proportionality. Someone might make a grotesque caricature of me, or or something i believe in strongly. But i am not going to kill them, or say killing them is cool. Dieudonne is in my modest opinion an inadequate individual who has hitched his wagon to every high profile unsavoury cause he can find. He would no doubt have been cool in the 70s, now he's just an asshole.

But the French have spent the past week telling us about their commitment to freedom of speech, and how they're a shining example of Western liberal values and the freedom to say what you think. (The unspoken words being "Unlike those backward Muslim types...") If you truly believe that, you have to extend that freedom to people like Dieudonne, however revolting he is.

Dieudonne is a disingenuous rabble-rousing arsehole. But if all he said was that he felt like Charlie Coulibaly, well, he should be free to say that. Otherwise, exactly what right to free speech are we all fighting for?

And as far as I understand it you can't be arrested for hate speech' per se here, only for inciting hatred. Sometimes its a subtle difference, but it is an important one.

You have a point Hackmum. The authorities can't stop him talking unless he is inciting hateful acts, I guess.

He has been arrested for 'apologie du terrorisme'. It is a criminal act.

I posted this on another thread about Charlie Hebdo yesterday.

Le fait de faire publiquement l'apologie des actes de terrorisme est puni de cinq ans d'emprisonnement et de 75 000 ? d'amende. La propagation de ces messages sur Internet porte les peines à sept ans d'emprisonnement et 100 000 ? d'amende d'après l'article 421-2-5 du code pénal. Yes it is a crime. To translate that it is punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment and a 75000? fine. To propagate these messages on the internet is punishable by 7 years and 100000€.

Bien fait pour sa gueule, c'est un connard !

Oui c'est un sacre con. Mais malheureusement ca ne l'arretera pas, ca lui fera penser qu'il est un martyre.

Si il va en prison, j'espère qu'il morflera ! Ça lui apprendra à cet idiot d'antisemitiste !

J'ai peur aussi qu'il sera considéré comme un martyr par ceux qui sont d'accord avec sa merde