Breaking News - Allegedly 10 people killed at office of satirical magazine in Paris

jingle thanks for your dismissive opinion on my post re holocaust. I was trying to point out that reasonably recently huge numbers of people were slaughtered for an ideology and that this current power crazy terrorism, which Naziism surely was, is similar.

Evil is evil, no matter with what rags of pseudo-justification it seeks to drape itself. Our thoughts are with the dead and injured and their friends and families, and in the hope of an early end to this horror.

Right Penstemonn. It just didn't seem very relevant. Perhaps it was my ageing brain. Sorry.

Agree with that papaoscar.

No worries jingle We all mis-read /mis-understand/don't make ourselves clear someties!!

Now there has been a shooting at a kosher supermarket in Paris. Is there no end to this?

I just saw that. They are under attack

OMG!

And all for the egos of a few jumped up journalists!

No - I know I shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but, really? Was it worth this?

Anyone who does not subscribe to their dogma is fair game, it seems. THAT is why we must fight for the freedom to disagree - even to the point of offending those fundamentalists who have no tolerance.

" First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...

The fanatical terrorists dont seem to be stopping.

Satirising terrorists incites them. Not stops them.

This must be tit for tat.

Is this freedom to mock really of more worth than another man's freedom to live?

Elegran. The cartoons were hatred, not merely offensive.

Why poke a bear?

Actually using a bear anology is not the best one.

A bee stings. I really dont see the point in stirring up a bee.

What is, happening in our beautiful cities?

I was going to post earlier then changed my mind that it's like a boy who pokes an enraged lion in a cage with a stick. He knows that he only has the bars of the cage to protect him and if the lion breaks through he will die. Maybe others will be hurt or killed but he keeps on doing it because until now nobody has told him to stop.

People with the mentality of a terrorist with no fear of dying will look for any excuse to,take offence. Stop satire and they will latch on to something else which they deem offensive.

Do we then end up tip toeing around their perceived sensitivities in the deep hope that we have not offended them and assure ourselves this is all it would take for them to stop slaughtering people?

satirising terrorisrs only incites them. Doesn't stop them

What stops them? Not appeals to reason, perhaps only all out warfare and how many more lives would be lost. Don't think you can appeal to their better nsture! All actions to date show they don't have one. Remember the school in Pakistan? I rest my case.

The French police are now saying the man holding five hostages in the Jewish supermarket is the same man who shot the policewoman yesterday.

Hopefully there are only these three men involved in these awful situations and not others popping up.

BTW I meant to say "hear, hear "* Agus* couldn't agree more!

Have they now moved on from being offended by satire to being offended by people of the Jewish faith? Exactly my point.

Soutra and Agus. No, people cannot stop them.

Two people have been killed inside the supermarket

What stops them*soutra*? - well we have not got an answer to that yet, but deliberate provocation in the form of cartoons that insult ALL people in that community, moderate and extremist, does not seem to be doing the trick. Indeed it would appear to have quite the opposite effect.

Journalists, governments and indeed all of us, need to take the long broad view and look at strategies that might make a positive difference and I think this involves mobilising the moderate community not seeking to antagonise them.

Journalists do become arrogant - I have personal experience of this - and take actions which they see as clever. But clever may not be wise and they need to stand back as a community and think how best they might serve the long term peace of the world.