A French police officer stands outside the Grand Mosque as people arrive for Friday prayers in Paris, Jan. 9. French security forces struggled with two rapidly developing hostage-taking situations, where two terror suspects were holed up with a hostage in a printing plant and the other an attack on a kosher market in Paris. Photos: AP/Wide World photos
“It is never right to mock the sensitivities of any religion; nevertheless, there is absolutely no justification in Islam for violent response to any provocation.” |
(FinalCall.com) – A large gathering was held January 11 drawing more than a million to the streets of Paris for a rally, which many are calling the largest demonstration in French history.
While that symbolic show of international unity has captured media headlines, it comes after a week of more strident and intolerant marches throughout France, Germany, and Sweden declaring war on “radical Islam” and the so-called “Islamization of Europe.”
Police officers and rescue workers gather after police stormed a kosher grocery store where a gunman held several hostages, in Paris, Jan. 9. The assault came moments after a similar raid on the building where the suspects in the Charlie Hebdo attacks were cornered and later killed.
In his article, “Paris Charlie Hebdo Attack : Another Zionist False Flag?” prominent author and editor of Veterans Today Dr. Kevin Barrett goes even further writing: “So far, it walks like one, it talks like one, and it perpetuates the 9/11 false-flag narrative about ‘radical Islam’ like one. So I’m calling it a false flag until proven otherwise.” |
Now with news the publishers of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, are in preparations to print three million copies of their next edition and planning to reprint unflattering and what many consider to be obscene depictions of Prophet Muhammad, it appears as if confrontation looms.
On January 7, two masked gunmen attacked the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo killing twelve including two police officers. Paris police confirmed the January 9 deaths of the two suspected gunmen, 34-year old Said Kouachi, his 32-year-old brother Cherif after cornering them in a printing warehouse in the small town of Dammartin-en-Goele.
Another related hostage standoff at a kosher grocery store in an eastern Paris neighborhood occurred on the same day. Thirty-two-year-old Amedy Coulibaly, reportedly took 19 hostages, but when anti-terrorism personnel stormed the building, he was killed along with four hostages. Video has also emerged which appears to show Mr. Coulibaly, pledging allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIL). Twenty-six-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene, a French woman of North African origin and Mr. Coulibaly’s wife, is still being sought by anti-terrorism units. Turkish intelligence officials told the Associated Press authorities believe she arrived in Turkey days before the Paris attacks and may now be in Syria.
Although not proven to be related, several French municipal websites were hacked, replaced with ISIL flag and other slogans and on Jan. 12, hacker groups sympathetic to ISIL took control of the U.S. Central Command’s Twitter account, YouTube feed and posted internal documents.
The Associated Press also reported Al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) directed the assault against the publication Charlie Hebdo to avenge the honor of the Prophet Muhammad. The investigative reporting outlet The Intercept verified the claim publishing the full text of AQAP’s claim of responsibility which included an ominous warning for specific Western nations involved in the so-called “War on Terror.”
“The target was in France in particular because of its obvious role in the war on Islam and oppressed nations,” the statement continued. “The Organization delayed to claim responsibility due to the executors’ security reasons. Nevertheless, the operation carries a number of important messages to all the Western countries. One: Touching Muslims’ sanctity and protecting those who make blasphemy have dear price and the punishment will be severe. Two: The crimes of the Western countries, above them America, Britain and France will backfire deep in their home. Three: The policy of hitting the snake’s head followed by the Al-Qaeda organization under the leadership of Adhawahiri is still achieving its goals; until the West retreats. Four: The inspiring media policies of the Mujahideen of Al-Qaeda especially of Inspire Magazine has greatly succeeded in identifying its targets and collecting powers.”
French President Francoise Hollande addressed the nation calling the attack against the kosher store an “anti-Semitic attack” adding the “fanatics and madmen,” who carried out the murders, “have nothing to do with the Muslim religion.” He then applauded the tactical officers who ended the hostage situations in both locations.
“The terrorist threats in France are not over yet,” Pres. Hollande said. “I would like to ask you to remain vigilant, to be united, and to remain mobilized,” he added.
The French Council of the Muslim Faith quickly condemned the violence.
“This barbaric act of extreme gravity is an attack against democracy and press freedom,” according to a statement on their website. It also called on Muslims and non-Muslims “to avoid provocations that only serve to throw fuel to the fire.”
Xenophobia and Islamophobia has been rising in many European nations, most notably in France, and the United Kingdom. Anti-Muslim retaliation was immediate after news of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo began to spread. Two mosques in France were fired on later that evening. In another incident, four training grenades were thrown into the front courtyard of a mosque in the French city of Le Mans.
Since the Jan. 7 attack, many mosques across France have had improvised explosive devices planted near them. There have been dozens of incidents of anti-Muslim graffiti and according to police, in Corsica, a pig’s severed head was hung on the door of a prayer area.
“We need a moment of calm now. We do not need retaliation,” said United Nations Human Rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. “Neither Islam nor multiculturalism in Europe is to blame for the bloody attack two mornings ago, as some right-wing political leaders have already begun to say.”
U.S. President Barack Obama immediately weighed in condemning the attack on the magazine and expressing solidarity with France in the battle against terrorism.
“France is America’s oldest ally, and has stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States in the fight against terrorists who threaten our shared security and the world. Time and again, the French people have stood up for the universal values that generations of our people have defended. France, and the great city of Paris where this outrageous attack took place, offer the world a timeless example that will endure well beyond the hateful vision of these killers,” said President Obama.
The White House also announced a Feb. 18 summit to address violent extremism with the goal of preventing radicalization and recruitment of those who may be moved to commit terrorist acts.
False Flag possibilities?
False Flag (or Black Flag) Operations are covert campaigns designed to deceive the public and conceal the true intentions and identities of those responsible for a particular event or crime. Typically, atrocities (or crimes) committed by military or security forces are blamed on terrorists in order to justify or aid in promoting an agenda that is not readily apparent. Governments throughout history have used such tactics to sway elections, to aid in the establishment or furtherance of foreign or domestic policy, and to take nations to war.
This screen grab made Jan. 12 shows the front page of the U.S. Central Command twitter account after is was hacked. The twitter site of the military’s U.S. Central Command was taken over by hackers claiming to be working on behalf of the Islamic State militants. American and coalition fighters are launching airstrikes against IS in Iraq and Syria. The site was filled with threats that said “American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back.” Other postings appeared to list names and phone numbers of military personnel as well as PowerPoint slides and maps.
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Many believe the convenient narrative of “radical Islamists” killing members of the publication in retaliation for their publishing disrespectful images is too simplistic. Reportedly, one of the shooters left behind his national identification card in a vehicle, considered something that wouldn’t be done by a highly trained assassin, especially one with the desire to “die as a martyr” which was reported in mainstream media.
Author and professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, referred to the timing of the incident as “suspicious” in an email.
“First it came a week after France voted in the U.N. Security Council to end the Israeli occupation that started in 1967,” wrote Mr. Qumsiyeh. “Second, the terror attack happened just after the Israeli government said their largest number of immigrants in 2014 came from France and they want more colonial settlers. What came to mind is the bombing of Jewish community centers in Baghdad in the 1950’s that helped recruit needed Jews for Israeli colonial activities.”
In that particular case, it was later exposed as a Mossad operation, Mr. Qumsiyeh added. He also pointed to what is referred to as the “Lavon Affair,” a failed 1954 Israeli covert operation in which Egyptian Jews were recruited to conduct bombings of American and British interests in Cairo while blaming it on the Muslim Brotherhood in order to create instability and ensure heavy British regional involvement.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, who served as assistant secretary of the treasury in the Reagan administration and as an associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, raised the same possibility in a recent writing.
“The suspects can be both guilty and patsies. Just remember all the terrorist plots created by the FBI that served to make the terrorism threat real to Americans,” he wrote.
In his article, “Paris Charlie Hebdo Attack : Another Zionist False Flag?” prominent author and editor of Veterans Today Dr. Kevin Barrett goes even further writing: “So far, it walks like one, it talks like one, and it perpetuates the 9/11 false-flag narrative about ‘radical Islam’ like one. So I’m calling it a false flag until proven otherwise.”
Freedom of speech, or another agenda?
Charlie Hebdo (Charlie Weekly) is a left-wing satirical publication with a circulation of 45,000 per edition.
The circumstances surrounding the deaths of its staff members raise important questions that must be addressed going forward. There are extremists in opinion shaping positions that hate Islam and Muslims, and display their disdain for the religion and its adherents by producing disrespectful writings and caricatures under the guise of freedom of speech and expression.
In Hollywood movies, Muslims are often the face of crime and terrorism. Editors and cartoonists for Charlie Hebdo have been charged by many with deliberately attempting to insult the faith of 1.6 billion people who recognize Prophet Muhammad as their spiritual guide.
Many Islamic groups were critical of its frequent publishing of images disrespectful of Islam, Prophet Muhammad and other religions, but at the same time condemned the use of violence in response to such transgressions.
“It is never right to mock the sensitivities of any religion; nevertheless, there is absolutely no justification in Islam for violent response to any provocation,” said Rafiq Hayat, national president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the UK. “It is a great source of regret that such violent acts and terrorist activities continue to be associated with Islam—despite the fact they have nothing to do with Islam’s true teachings.”
Others pointed out the contradictions inherent in the fact that one questioning aspects of the accepted version of what is known as The Holocaust could face stiff fines and even imprisonment in France, while Islam is available to be lampooned in any manner by whomever under the guise of freedom of expression.
The publication has been attacked before and is frequently embroiled in controversy.
In 2007, Charlie Hebdo reprinted 12 controversial cartoons of Prophet Muhammad that originally appeared in Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper. This caused great anger and outrage across the Muslim world. Then in November 2011, the offices of Charlie Hebdo were firebombed after publishing material mocking Prophet Muhammad and the magazine’s website was also hacked. In September 2012, it published another series of cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, some of which portrayed him naked. This was during the time the Muslim world was in an uproar following the release of the Islamophobic film “The Innocence of Muslims.”
Special to the NNPA from The Final Call
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