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French Far-right Leader Marine Le Pen Faces Racism Charges

POSTED BY: GEEZER
UPDATED: Monday, June 3, 2013 04:25
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Sunday, June 2, 2013 1:34 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up


Quote:

French far-right leader, Marine Le Pen, could face criminal charges for inciting racism, the BBC has learnt.

The French authorities opened a case against Mrs Le Pen in 2011 after she likened the sight of Muslims praying in the streets to the Nazi occupation of France.

As a European Parliament member (MEP), she enjoyed immunity from prosecution.

However, this protection was removed by a European parliamentary committee in a secret vote this week.

BBC chief political correspondent Gary O'Donoghue says he has been told that the vote to remove her immunity was "overwhelming".

It will need to be ratified by the full parliament, but that's expected to be a formality, our correspondent says.

When the parliament's legal affairs committee first tried to consider the case, Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Front party, failed to turn up.

This week she sent a fellow French MEP in her place.

The move clears the way for the French authorities to pursue a case against the leader, who steered her party to a record 18% showing in the first round of last year's presidential election.

Mrs Le Pen made the remarks at a party rally in 2010 in the southern French town of Lyon.

She said that Muslims using the streets to pray because mosques were overflowing was an "occupation" of French territory.

Praying in the streets was banned in Paris in 2011 in response to growing far right protests.

By some estimates, as many as six million French people, or just under 10% of the population, are Muslims, with origins in France's former North African colonies.

Their integration has been a source of political debate in recent years, and in 2011 France became the first EU state to ban face-covering Islamic veils in public.

The BBC has so far been unable to reach Mrs Le Pen for comment.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22739736

Always nice when the EU reminds us to be glad we have the First Amendment.

Not that Mme. Le Pen's remark isn't racist, of course.

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Sunday, June 2, 2013 10:56 AM

AGENTROUKA


I thought there was some form of consequence for hate speech in the US? I might honestly be wrong.

I don't mind seeing her charged according to French law. Comparing Muslims at prayer in public (legal at the time) to the Nazi occupation is pretty damn harsh, and an incitement to violent "resistance" at worst.

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Sunday, June 2, 2013 11:48 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


Le Pen is a dangerous woman who has incited hatred towards Muslims in the past. Her party is basically a neo nazi one.

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Sunday, June 2, 2013 12:12 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Quote:

Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
Le Pen is a dangerous woman who has incited hatred towards Muslims in the past. Her party is basically a neo nazi one.



So, complaining that Muslims are like nazis equates to BEING a neo nazi ?


Huh???

And where's the " racism " on display here ? I see none. She made an observation which reflects back on a time when France was invaded by uppity white folks, who had a plan to take over the world.

The practice of showing one's religion is by no means 'racial'. It's completely absurd.

And as for the term ' hate speech' , that's nothing but an attempt at controlling what people think.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

Resident USA Freedom Fundie

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Sunday, June 2, 2013 12:28 PM

AGENTROUKA


It's not an observation. It's a ridiculous and highly insulting comparison. It equates publicly praying muslim French citizens to a brutal, hostile invasion by foreign powers. That's NOT an observation.

The racial aspect is likely tied to the fact that the vast majority of France's significant muslim minority have "origins in France's former North African colonies"? People her party has a problem with. Which is among the reasons her far-right party is sometimes called neo-nazi.

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Sunday, June 2, 2013 12:31 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


No, Rouka, the First Amendment trumps almost everything, including hate speech, over here. As far as I know, when it comes to "hate speech",
Quote:

Some limits on expression were contemplated by the framers and have been read into the Constitution by SCOTUS. In 1942, Justice Frank Murphy summarized the case law as follows; "There are certain well-defined and limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise a Constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous and the insulting or “fighting” words – those which by their very utterances inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace."[56]

Traditionally, however, if the speech did not fall within one of the above categorical exceptions, it was protected speech. In 1969, SCOTUS protected a Ku Klux Klan member’s racist and hate filled speech and created the ‘imminent danger’ test to permit hate speech. The court ruled in Brandenburg v. Ohio that; "The constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a state to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force, or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers may sometimes be prosecuted for tolerating "hate speech" by their employees, if that speech contributes to a broader pattern of harassment resulting in a "hostile or offensive working environment" for other employees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech#United_States



Essentially, our Supreme Court decided "hate speech is permissible unless it will lead to imminent hate violence". So we have no protection against the kind of thing illustrated here, or illustrated pretty much every day in this country.


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Sunday, June 2, 2013 12:31 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Quote:

Originally posted by AgentRouka:
It's not an observation. It's a ridiculous and highly insulting comparison. It equates publicly praying muslim French citizens to a brutal, hostile invasion by foreign powers. That's NOT an observation.

The racial aspect is likely tied to the fact that the vast majority of France's significant muslim minority have "origins in France's former North African colonies"? People her party has a problem with. Which is among the reasons her far-right party is sometimes called neo-nazi.



So, you're telling me that if all those Muslims praying in the streets were lily white, blonde haired, blue eyed folks, she'd have no problem at all ? Would it still be a ' racial' issue ?

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

Resident USA Freedom Fundie

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Sunday, June 2, 2013 12:40 PM

AGENTROUKA


Quote:

Originally posted by AURAPTOR:
Quote:

Originally posted by AgentRouka:
It's not an observation. It's a ridiculous and highly insulting comparison. It equates publicly praying muslim French citizens to a brutal, hostile invasion by foreign powers. That's NOT an observation.

The racial aspect is likely tied to the fact that the vast majority of France's significant muslim minority have "origins in France's former North African colonies"? People her party has a problem with. Which is among the reasons her far-right party is sometimes called neo-nazi.



So, you're telling me that if all those Muslims praying in the streets were lily white, blonde haired, blue eyed folks, she'd have no problem at all ? Would it still be a ' racial' issue ?



I think it's a bit more complex than that.

There likely wouldn't be a large muslim minority without that significant population from former colonies. I'm pretty sure one is tied up with the other.

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Monday, June 3, 2013 4:25 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up


Quote:

Originally posted by Niki2:
Essentially, our Supreme Court decided "hate speech is permissible unless it will lead to imminent hate violence". So we have no protection against the kind of thing illustrated here, or illustrated pretty much every day in this country.



So who would you like to be the one who decides who gets 'protection' and who doesn't?

What if it was a conservative state deciding that promoting same-sex marriage was "hate speech" against the sanctity of heterosexual marriage?


"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

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