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Europe
French Prosecute Anti-Semitic "Comedian"
2004-01-24
Maybe the French are starting to get a clue? Of course, I am an optimist....
A well-known French comic will be prosecuted for on-air antics that included dressing up as an Orthodox Jew and decrying an "American-Zionist" axis, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Friday. Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala’s performance, which drew criticism from the French prime minister, came during a prime-time TV show, "On Ne Peut Pas Plaire a Tout le Monde," ("You Can’t Please Everybody") on Dec. 1. As part of the skit, the comic raised an arm and shouted "Isra-Heil!" — a reference to the Nazi slogan, "Heil Hitler." Prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation Dec. 24 into whether the comic’s skit and "incriminating comments" constituted racial defamation. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has said he was "shocked" by the performance, and the show’s host, Marc-Olivier Fogiel, apologized for the episode. Several Jewish groups complained. On Thursday, Justice Minister Dominique Perben said that "justice would be inflexible" if racism is proven. "Racism is an evil that I don’t want to see develop in this country," Perben said. France has been battling a wave of anti-Semitic violence for more than two years, often involving attacks against Jewish schools, synagogues and community centers.
I take the same issue with this that I do with the punishment of the kids who nominated a white South African as African-American of the Year. In most cases — and I exclude imams in the mosques calling for jihad — the way to deal with this sort of thing is to throw rotten fruit and call the perpetrator names. That's what he's doing. Bringing the Majesty of the State™ into it makes me queasy. It's too easy to do it in other cases, for instance people who point out that we're at war with inbred, eye-rolling limb choppers whose civilization hasn't managed to contribute anything of substance to human progress since somewhere around 1300 A.D.
Posted by:Desert Blondie

#3  This is an absolutely dumb way to deal racism. And watch. Just as they felt obliged to add skull caps and large crosses to their ban on head scarves (also stupid) they will now feel obliged to go out and arrest a Christian and a Jewish comic for "balance".
Posted by: wuzzalib   2004-1-24 9:56:04 PM  

#2  Last night I watched several stand-up guys on TV that were pretty funny. One was Vietnamese and two were black. None of their routines would have passed PC muster. Many of the jokes were aimed at undercutting not reenforcing racial and ethnic stereotypes. The routines were riblad but culturally healthy and protected by the first amendment. If they had offended me, I would have changed the channel or watched the commercials to see which companies I needed to schedule for individual economical reprisals.
Posted by: Super Hose   2004-1-24 1:55:20 PM  

#1  "Racism is an evil that I don’t want to see develop in this country"

Oops, too late.
Posted by: Rafael   2004-1-24 7:37:56 AM  

00:00