AL-QAEDA TARGETS FRANCE OVER MOHAMMED CARTOONS*

PARIS May 12, 2006 (AFP) - A video by an al-Qaeda member [Libyan Mohammed Hassan, Sheikh Abu Yahia al-Libi] posted on the Internet Thursday called upon Muslims to attack Denmark, Norway and France for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Muslims avenge your prophet .... We deeply desire that the small state of Denmark, Norway and France ... are struck hard and destroyed. ... Destroy their buildings, make their ground shake and transform them into a sea of blood.

A SEA OF BLOOD
They Hate You. They Will Kill You.

A sea of blood. This is not some fanciful trope extemporised by Mr. Hassan. In his deranged Islamite mind he fully expects the faithful to get busy slitting French, Norwegian, and Dutch throats. And only a short while ago M. Douste Blazy -- and M. Barnier before him -- were instructing America to make a place for the likes of Mr. Hassan at any Iraq government tea parties, which France was prepared to cater.

It was unclear when the 35-minute video, produced by al-Sahab, a media organisation close to al-Qaeda, was recorded. [The tape is dated February 2006.]

Muslims consider any image of the prophet to be blasphemous.

How then to explain the venerable Islamic tradition of Mohammed portraiture? The AFP fact-checkers must check their facts by ringing up the AFP editors at UOIF.

We have posted on ginned-up Islamite cartoon rage here, here, here, and here. But there is no cartoon rage. Even the pious are hard pressed to find anything offensive in the original twelve Mr. Mo (PBUH) cartoons. No, but cartoon rage -- something just as stupid as it sounds -- gets sympathetic headline play in the West. It certainly plays better than the unadorned truth that Islamites hate you because of your religion, your race, your nationality, your personal freedoms, any freedoms if you are a woman, because of your sex orgies, your 500-channel cable, because of the Battle of Toulouse, the Battle of Tours, the Crusades, the Reconquista, the Battle of Vienna, colonialism, American investment in oil exploration and development, Israel, and...ah, Israel. Well, certainly pretending to be really really upset about cartoons is easier than rattling off a long list of insupportable pouts and historical grudges.

And opportunistic politicians can be depended on to hold a press conference to pretend being as offended as the Islamite pretends to be.

"Too bad about the [choose one or several: kidnapping, deprivations, cigarette burns, beating, rape, knifing, amputation, some less conventional torture, throat slitting, decapitation, bombing]. [Pause.] Well, you know, there were those cartoons..."

Let us hope that M. Douste-Blazy has something bolder in mind than extending France's ever-extended hand in Mr. Hassan's direction. Or the French talking cure.

* The AFP or Expatica has changed the original headline above to the less threatening: AL-QAEDA STILL MAD OVER MOHAMMED CARTOONS. Oh, that crazy Al-Qaeda! Tout va bien, il n'y a rien à voir.

PFFT (What is this?): Plain-spoken terrorism 5 | Rayonnement français 0