Acts of Terrorism megathread

[Tonitrus]

They lie about theirs often enough...fair is fair. 

But in all seriousness...probably.

[Duque de Bragança]

No, specially when trying to immigrate and claiming welfare.
The age element is important since he came as a so-called "isolated minor" status which gave him legal residence and protection.
That status is notoriously being used and abused by illegal migrants, as in this extreme but not uncommon instance.

[Josquius]

Sure. It happens. But what's the point about it?
It's well known that people do this. It's less well known but also fact that governments do a lot of work to try and ascertain the truth. Alas checking someone's age biologically is not an exact science.

[Duque de Bragança]

Sure. It happens. But what's the point about it?
It's well known that people do this. It's less well known but also fact that governments do a lot of work to try and ascertain the truth. Alas checking someone's age biologically is not an exact science.

Bone tests would have been enough for this case, he is 25 now, not 18 or so, take or leave a couple of months.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

religion of peace strikes again: teacher beheaded in paris

https://www.tijd.be/dossier/europareeks/leerkracht-onthoofd-nabij-parijs-islamitische-terreuraanslag/10258541.html (in dutch, but that's not an issue with google translate).

who the hell let those barbarians in?

[Duque de Bragança]

French media article in English about yesterday's latest ™ Religion of Eternal Peace™ terrorist attack.
One last jihad before curfew...

https://www.france24.com/en/france/20201017-nine-people-detained-over-beheading-of-french-teacher-in-paris-suburb

History, geography and Civic Education teacher was previously threatened on internet videos by angry Maghrebi parents due to a class about freedom of speech where Mahomet cartoons were discussed, though not necessarily shown. Article is not quite clear about the matter.

Nine people have been arrested over the beheading of a French school teacher in a Paris suburb on Friday. The suspect, shot dead by police shortly after the attack, was an 18-year-old Chechen, according to an AFP source.

The man suspected of beheading the teacher who showed his students cartoons of the prophet Mohammed was an 18-year-old Moscow-born Chechen, a source told AFP on Saturday, in an act the President Emmanuel Macron described as an "Islamist terror attack".

Nine people were detained on Friday over the murder, including the parents of a child at the school where the teacher was working, said the source, who asked not to be named.

According to the source, the two detained parents had signalled their disagreement with the teacher's decision to show the cartoons. Others detained for questioning are members of the suspect's social circle but not family members.

The assailant was shot by police and later died of his injuries.

The teacher had recently discussed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in class, according to police and media sources.

France's anti-terror prosecutor said it was investigating the attack, which took place in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a suburb north-west of Paris, at around 5:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Friday.

Macron headed to the scene following an emergency meeting at the French interior ministry.

Decrying an "Islamist terrorist attack", the French president said the whole country stood united behind its teachers.

"A citizen has been murdered today because he was a teacher and because he taught freedom of expression," Macron said near the school where the teacher was killed.

"Terrorists will not divide France, obscurantism will not prevail," Macron added.

In a tweet, the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo expressed its "sense of horror and revolt" at Friday's attack


Secularism class

Police said witnesses had heard the attacker shout "Allahu Akbar", or "God is Great".

The grisly murder was an attack on the French nation as a whole, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said on Twitter.

"Our unity and our resolve are the only responses faced with the monstrosity of Islamist terrorism," the minister wrote.

Reporting from the scene of the attack, FRANCE 24's Julia Kim said the teacher had recently given a class on secularism and the controversy surrounding the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The teacher reportedly "asked his Muslim students to leave the room because he was going to show some cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that could have caused offence," Kim said, adding that this had angered some parents.

"According to my son, he was super nice, super friendly, super kind," the parent, Nordine Chaouadi, told AFP. The teacher "simply said to the Muslim children: 'Leave, I don't want it to hurt your feelings.' That's what my son told me," the parent said.

Shadow of Charlie Hebdo killings

Last month, a 25-year old Pakistani man attacked two people with a meat cleaver over the Charlie Hebdo cartoons, which are considered by Muslims to be blasphemous.

The attacker seriously injured two employees of a TV production agency, whose offices are on the same block that used to house the satirical weekly. Both survived.

That attack came three weeks into an ongoing trial of suspected accomplices of the authors of the January 2015 attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket, which also saw a policewoman gunned down in the street.

Seventeen people were killed in the three-day spree that heralded a wave of Islamist violence in France that has so far claimed more than 250 lives.

Al Qaeda, the militant Islamist group that claimed responsibility for the 2015 attack, threatened to attack Charlie Hebdo again after it republished the cartoons at the start of the trial.

The magazine said last month it published the cartoons to assert its right to freedom of expression, and to show it would not be cowed into silence by violent attacks. That stance was backed by many prominent French politicians and public figures.

[grumbler]

Actually, the article is quite clear that the cartoons were shown.

I'm still baffled by the murderous rage we see in some people over cartoons.  It's not like the prohibition against showing the images of humans was a commandment from the Quran; it's merely a recommendation by religious leaders in the years after Mohammed to avoid even the suspicion of idolatry, and it's not binding on non-Muslims.

[Duque de Bragança]

Actually, the article is quite clear that the cartoons were shown.

Earlier reports were not so clear.
I meant the teacher did not show them to all pupils, by saying those who could be offended could leave.

PS: The now dead suspect was a refugee...

[viper37]

who the hell let those barbarians in?

Russia.

[grumbler]

who the hell let those barbarians in?

Russia.

Blame the Romans.  They let in the ancestors of those whining about "who the hell let those barbarians in."

It is an old complaint.  Only the complainers change.

[Tonitrus]

Especially all those Christians...they're the ones that really killed Rome. 

[Tamas]

who the hell let those barbarians in?

Russia.

Blame the Romans.  They let in the ancestors of those whining about "who the hell let those barbarians in."

It is an old complaint.  Only the complainers change.

On the other hand, I do think the history of the perpetrator and the family members arrested with him can legit play a factor in how I judge this crime. He and his family were offered shelter by France from persecution in Russia. Beheading somebody for ideological reason is terrible no matter the wider context, but killing a member of the society for a cultural difference, which had no obligation to take you in but did so anyway, makes it especially hideous in my view.

[DGuller]

The unfortunate things about these terrorist acts is that they're probably going to be successful.  I'm sure there are going to be at least some teachers now self-censoring themselves, not wanting to become involving in the next murder-suicide.

[The Brain]

Many Swedes think that anyone who gets involved with these kinds of cartoons get what they deserve. If you're lucky you get a "It's horrible that people are killed over cartoons..." before the "BUT...". Few people in Sweden think that freedom of expression is important. The idea of a Swedish teacher showing the cartoons in class... of course I could be wrong, but my impression is that in Sweden that would be completely beyond the pale.

[DGuller]

Many Swedes think that anyone who gets involved with these kinds of cartoons get what they deserve. If you're lucky you get a "It's horrible that people are killed over cartoons..." before the "BUT...". Few people in Sweden think that freedom of expression is important. The idea of a Swedish teacher showing the cartoons in class... of course I could be wrong, but my impression is that in Sweden that would be completely beyond the pale.

It's hard to have freedom of speech and freedom from offense at the same time.  Either as a legal protection or as a mindset.