France fines comedian 10,000 euros over anti-Semitic stunt

While I can not and do not agree with what the comedian said, I find the fact that he was punished for an idea, as offensive as what he said. Liberte, Fraternite, Egalite.... Try again.

you would never joke about the massacres of tutsies or Cambodians, never in a million years. But Jews are an easy target.

or the Cambodian genocide, would you? The guy is saturated with hate and should be seen as such

French Comedian. IS it possible that this Frenche's brains has become somewhat distorted by eating: Snakes,Turtles,Worms,& Cockroaches & Termites ? And don't forget their delicacy: The Frog,which they eat instead of the chicken ! Bon Appetit !!

There is a technical difference between anti Zionism and anti Semitism but practically it doesn't exist. Any in depth examination of anti Zionism will always have an anti Semetic base.(Except for many ulta Orthodox Jews.)

we'll take care of him - better yet why don't jews go to his shows and disrupt them until he can't perform anymore - bring eggs & etc

Machmadim is a regular noun in Hebrew, not a proper noun. It is in plural (not singular) and it translates as darlings or precious things in English. The Songs of Solomon were composed long before Muhammad was born and make absolutely no reference whatsoever to the Quranic Muhammad. In Hebrew, the Quranic Muhammad is spelt and pronounced as "Muchamed", not machmad (singular) or machmadim (plural). To persist with your silly anachronistic and revisionist claim, you would have to concede that the sentence you quoted from the Songs of Solomon was referring not to one Muhammad but to many Muhammads.

Free speech stops when other people's right is violated. This is a clear indication how far people would go to make fun of other people. This person should be in jail because this type of behavior incites violence against minorities.

Is there no difference between publishing a cartoon which makes a statement against one religion's penchant for using violence in the name of its creator and the massacre of 6 million people? What kind of joke can you make about a massacre? Anyone joking about Rwanda or Bosnia massacres?

Don't get it. The article makes it sound as if the comic was mocking the holocaust denier by having a 'deportee' give him the 'award'. Assume that the content was very different, and that the French courts acted appropriately...for once.

It not obnoxious, its evil... You don't insult or even joke that those who were murdered. This is a sensative issue for the EU, considering they are still holding Jewish property, money, etc which still have not been fully returned and still trying to get away with it.

CRIF is the main Orthodox synagogue body in France, like Britain's [Orthodox] United Synagogue or the Orthodox Union in the USA. AIPAC is a purely political group lobbying for Israel. CRIF is non-political and AIPAC is non-religious.

What is humourous about inviting a Holocaust denier to come on stage? In Britain the BBC invited Nick Griffin of the racist British National Party to join the panel on its flagship 'Question Time' t.v. show. He once compared belief in the Holocaust to belief that the world is flat, but I can't say I found him hunourous!

Obviously your area of Ireland has a different outlook from most of the EU, where racist jokes have been unacceptable for quite a while. The last 'Catholic' humourist I can think of in the UK is Dave Allen in the 1970's -- and he was very tame. Aside from the 'Danish cartoons' I don't recall much 'anti-Islamic' humour, and those cartoons never appeared in the British press, lest it offend Anglo-Muslims.

Muhammad(peace be upon him) is mentioned by name in Old Testament, Song of Solomon, chap5, verse 16:"Hikko Mamittakim we kullo Muhammadim Zehdoodeh wa Zehraee Bayna Jerusalem." His mouth [is] most sweet: yea, he [is] altogether lovely. This [is] my beloved, and this [is] my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." The translater has even translated the name of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as "altogether lovely", but in the Old Testament in Hebrew, the name of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is present yet. Isn't that only Islam testifies Moses & Jesus (peace be upon them) as messenger of Allah?

made racist jokes about the Koran,Muslims,or maybe called all Catholics child abusers,or joked that all non Jews are cattle, then he no doubt would have got a comedy award.." Even the cartoons about Prophet Mohamad by the samll danish right wing tabloid was not reprinted en masse by Israeli press nor by jewish Journalists worldwide.There was a samall western Canadian paper run by a Jewish person who printed the danish cartoon to make a point for free speech. He was quickly shouted down by Canadian mainstream and Jewish newspapers. Ronald,you as a Catholic are not capable to views Jews as rightfull part of the human race and you still have your mind poisonned by the myth that Jews killed Christ.Our ancestors did not kill Christ.It was the Pagan Roman Empire Legionaaires who did it. My Grand, grand...granparents,pius Israelite Jews would have rescued the Yeshu from crucifiction,had they had cellphones.They happenned to work in their field in Galil so they didn't hear about it in time

Declared war on the black world?? He must be confused with Sudan Arabs. Care to quote some anti Moslem jokes from M'Bala?

freedom of speech is not a freedom to insult!

If he had made similar "Jokes" about Muslims, it's likely that a speacial session of the UN Security Council would be have been called, Muslims in Turkey, Indonesia, London and just about everywhere else would be demonstrating and a "Fatwa" would probably have been issued by a senior Iranian cleric. Not to mention a Muslim boycott of everything French!

For Muslims, all that is usually said about them is truth (or would you be an Islamism terrorist denier?) while Revisionism/Shoah denial is not. For Christians, no fun is made about them in a matter that would bring to violences, such as those that happen in Middle-East due to Palestinians thinking Israel originates from [the faked for this purpose] Shoah (hence the conspiracy theory, antisemitism and all that follows. By the way, stop using the term Holocaust: it is old and no more used by Historians: use Shoah instead. Besides, as a Frenchman, I can confirm Dieudonné is very famous in France and wins as many trials as he loses. No freedom of speech you say? Too much violence by provocation I answer!

I support freedom of speech, but he crossed the line. The Holocaust is no laughing matter.

While pretending to condemn Dieudonne's anti-Semitism, Yaakov Sullivan's own position is not that far away of that of that clown Dieudonne, he just replaced it with a more up to date, modern, politically correct form of anti-Semitism "anti-Zionism"!

Dieudonne has been up to this kind of anti-Semitisme for years. I think this is the 5th time he's been charged with making these kinds of statements. His history, as best I can tell from the articles I've read in Le Monde, is that he was pretty popular as a comedian for a while, but he has since decided to take an anti-Israel and anti-Jewish approach to his politics and his comedy. Now, he's seen pretty much as an anti-Semite provocateur and he's lost most of his broad popularity. In short, he's the kind of guy who Faurrison would go watch for a good laugh. No mystery there.

This comedian is too much of a coward to make a joke about moslems, so he picks on Jews. He should be ashamed of himself to slander any nationality We are all God's children

Yes, there is freedom of speech in France. However, many democratic countries do not accept the absolutist view of speech freedom that has been the characteristic of the US since the Supreme Court accepted the then minority view of Hugo Black. Many democracies, Germany, Belgium and France do not consider that inciting to racial or religious hatred, and particularly denying the Holocaust, should be permitted speech; and those who engage in those activities are punished. It has helped to keep those groups from obtaining acceptance by the broad public and in the media. The difference may be that the Holocaust occurred on their soil and not on ours.

the fact is that the Arabs were the slave traders of late! they still do it, I believe.

Denmark is not France. In France, they absolutely do not tolerate such speech against any group. I am not saying that I agree with this, as I believe that a person should be free to say anything that he wants, no matter how abhorrent it is, as long as he doesn't incite to violence. But, this is the law in France. Any statement such as yours, that states that only Jews are protected against this is wrong, and even anti-Semitic in its intent.

or Christians for that matter. It will hopefully put an end to comedy. "An Atheist walked into a bar"

Dieudonne made dozens of jokes about ISlam, muslims, christianity and christians and other religions. in France everybody loves him regardless of their religions. He made a joke about the IDF and all hell broke lose. the french aipac LE CRIF is working relentlessly to get him out of business but they will not succeed. FREEDOM OF SPEECHHHHHHHHHHH. a comedian cannot be a comedian if he doesnt provoque.

first of all Dieudonne is NOT from the right wing and has never been. He is a universalist and recently formed his own political party. And second, he is not Antisemite, he is an ANTIZIONIST. he made a funny joke about the IDF and the equivalent of Aipac in france called (CRIF) is trying to paint him as an antisemite.

However, France can limit freedom of speech any way it wants to. However, there is a possibility the abridgment of freedom of speech may be subverted in the future with disastrous results.

of the Prophet Mohammed? most europe went up in arms to defend the rights of the Cartoonist under the freedom of expresssion and speech and accusing the Muslims of medieval intolerance. The world can't be brain washed with this hypocracy and double standards anymore.

It is not his first time, nor it is the first time that he his condemned. My guess is that it will not be the last time.

...this amount of publicity in any other way. Ever thought that this is exactly the way he wants it to be?

And more likely if he had joked about the Koran he would be dead.

As obnoxious as this guy may be he should still be free to say what he wants, regardless of the message.

What is even more worrying is that if he had made jokes about the Koran, Muslims, or maybe called all Catholics child abusers, or joked that all non Jews are cattle, then he no doubt would have got a comedy award, would have been used as an example of Frances 'tolerant' and 'open attitude' to free speech and no doubt free speech advocates would be calling for him to be made a saint and be protected by the law.

Anti-semitism is racist and cannot be tolerated. This comedien got what he serserved and any further incidents of this kind should be treated in the same way by the French courts.

The problem is this guy obviously gets a large audience and this is a very worrying situation.