Fraternite, Egalite

Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons last year that led to rioting. No American paper reprinted the pictures, as they were said to be inflammatory. Certainly had the hard-line Muslims up in flames, filled with indignation...after a few days, when the hard-liners got wind of it. When the cartoons were first put out, no one noticed.

Charlie Hebdo, a French publication, also published the cartoons. In tribute to the notion of freedom of the press, the Union of Islamic Organisations in France and the French Muslim Council are taking the magazine to court. The charge? "Public insult towards a group of people because of their religion."

The Muslims claim that they have taken a page from the Jews, who have used a similar tactic to battle anti-Semitic literature. It is worth noting that the Islamic group filed a case in Denmark, where the offending pictures originated, but the case was thrown out. Likewise, a civil lawsuit against Jyllands-Posten for slander was dismissed. As far as the courts in Denmark were concerned, the cartoons were in the public interest, and that was the end of that. And now, to France.

Flemming Rose, editor of Jyllands-Posten, will act as a witness for the defense. Like many of his fellow news people, he's worked up into a state about the case. He likens the lawsuit to the sort of thing that marked the Soviet Union; no free speech, don't criticize those in authority.

France's left-wing newspaper Liberation is going to publish a joint edition with Charlie Hebdo on the day that the trial starts. Earlier, they printed a signed declaration of support for the magazine. It is unthinkable that a French publication would not dare to mock religion. This is the country that turned Notre Dame Cathedral into a theatre after the revolution, at a time that French citizens saw the organized church as a tool of the established order.

The editor of Charlie Hebdo sees a conspiracy behind the entire case. President Chirac seems to be supporting the Muslim groups, and his lawyer is representing the plaintiffs. Then there is the timing of the trial, rushed through so that it is heard before the upcoming elections. And as for the judge, instead of the usual group that hears media cases, there will be a high court judge who found a company guilty of insulting Christians when it used an image of the Last Supper in an advert.

I believe I'd avoid France in the near future. Dangerous there, with all that political correctness running amok and trampling everything in its path. And the ground's none too stable either, with Marat and Danton and Mirabeau all rolling in their graves.