France jails people for irony

Ali Abunimah writes France jails people for irony.

This incident sums up the sheer hypocrisy of France’s national mood. Anything mocking and denigrating Islam and Muslims is venerated as courageous free speech, while anything mocking those who engage in such denigration — even using the same techniques — can get you locked up.

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It may seem surprising that French authorities can charge and jail people so quickly. These summary trials and long custodial terms are the result of a change in the law in November in which the charge of “defending terrorism” became a criminal offence subject to fast-track trials.

France’s Human Rights League recently said that when the change in the law was being debated, it had “demonstrated that it would be ineffective for security, dangerous for liberties and damaging to the credibility of the justice system”.

The group said that the slew of summary convictions of “drunks and fools” vindicated its warnings. Many of these people are now likely to end up on the state’s planned “anti-terrorist register.”

Musician and author charged

Prosecutions for expression do not take place only under the “defending terrorism” law. This week the rapper Saidou of the band Z.E.P. and the sociologist Said Bouamama will be indicted in Lille for “public insult” and “incitement to discrimination, hate, or violence”.

The prosecution was brought by a right-wing nationalist group, as MR Zine reports, because of Said’s book Fuck France and a Z.E.P. song with the same title.

The song’s refrain states: “Fuck France and its colonialist past, its paternalist smells, stenches, and reflexes. Fuck France and its imperialist history, its capitalist walls, fortresses and delusions.”

Z.E.P., ironically, stands for “Zone d’expression populaire” — Popular Expression Zone.

It is only a matter of time before these laws are used with renewed vigour against a whole range of speech that might upset the French state, especially those who advocate for Palestinian rights and for the boycott of Israel.

Emphasis Mine

So, free speech is part of white privilege.