Comment by acqq | Hacker News Reader

Comment by acqq | Hacker News Reader

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For a broader context, 16 years earlier something very similar happened in the Netherlands:

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Theo_van_...

“The murderer Mohammed Bouyeri, an Islamic extremist, killed van Gogh. The reason for murdering Gogh was to oppose the controversial film which criticised Islam: “Submission”. Bouyeri shot and stabbed van Gogh, then cut his throat. Finally the killer attached a 5 letter page to van Gogh's chest with a knife.“

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4716909.stm

“Bouyeri had told the court he had acted out of religious conviction. Clutching a copy of the Koran, he said that "the law compels me to chop off the head of anyone who insults Allah and the prophet"”

What was in the letter: it “threatened Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She had written the script for Van Gogh's controversial film Submission, which criticised the treatment of women under Islam.”

(Completely unrelated to that event, the killed artist’s great-great uncle was Vincent van Gogh.)

Why you talk about things happened few years ago? The act of terror occurred at least once per three day.

>> From 2016 to 2018, Spain had the most court cases for terror offences (343) in the EU, followed by the UK (329), France (327) and Belgium (301). >> In 2018, 61% of verdicts for those cases in EU states were classed as "jihadist terror offences" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51560046

Just because the killing of van Gogh predates today more known 2005 event (1) the first publishing of the caricatures which Samuel Paty discussed in his class, and also significantly predates the mere existence of ISIS, while still being very similar to the 2020 murder.

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_carto...

I am not sure that the publishing is the reason of terror. The terrorism is the reason of terror. If you want all thing that you do could be the reason for terrorist to kill you. The goal is not question of allow-ability for some drawing. The goal is to show you have to fear, you have to obey.

Wow that was unexpected. I wonder how many such stories don’t come to light

I'm not sure what you mean. This was headline news even in the US when it happened.

Maybe more context can explain the "unexpectedness": from the New York Times article covering the event in 2004:

"Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende called for calm and asked people to let investigators do their job before jumping to conclusions. "Nothing is known about the motive," he said in written statement."

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/world/europe/dutch-filmma...

And even more context, the transcript of a 2005 speech by George W. Bush, mentioning that event:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/administratio...

"In a courtroom in the Netherlands, the killer of Theo Van Gogh turned to the victim's grieving mother and said, "I do not feel your pain because I believe you are an infidel."

And in spite of this veneer of religious rhetoric, most of the victims claimed by the militants are fellow Muslims.

BUSH: When 25 Iraqi children are killed in a bombing or Iraqi teachers are executed at their school or hospital workers are killed caring for the wounded, this is murder, pure and simple; the total rejection of justice and honor and moral and religion.

These militants are not just the enemies of America or the enemies of Iraq, they are the enemies of Islam and the enemies of humanity.

(APPLAUSE)"

The NYT seems to have a history of such titles. The initial title for the article about Samuel Paty's murder was "French Police Shoot and Kill Man After a Fatal Knife Attack on the Street".

The Washington Post is just as bad: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50205592

Goddamn, there's no way this wasn't intentional. Imagine if Fox News had called Dylann Roof something like a "mild-mannered young man", we would have never heard the end of that.

Frightening to see that from the Post.

The whole of the US press has been behaving like absolute cowards when it comes to caricatures and islam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-yYhq3nOng

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