It’s a fascinating
story,
in part because Europe looks at freedom of speech much differently than
we do in the states. Our laws here tend to protect political speech
more than in some European countries at least. In this case, a young
French (presumably Muslim, based on the rest of the article) 3-year-old
boy named “Jihad” goes to nursery school wearing a t-shirt with the
phrase “I am a bomb” written on the front, and on the back it reads
“Jihad Born Sept. 11.”You can see a picture of the t-shirt
on this page.
The thing is, the boy’s name is Jihad, and he was born on September 11.
Little Jihad’s teacher, thinking the shirt was praising the September
11 attacks, called the principal who called the mother. The mom, who
was born in Morocco, apologized and said had no intent to convey a
political message. Everyone thought the matter was over.
Well, the principal contacted his higher-ups, they contacted the
city’s conservative mayor, who then contacted the local prosecutor. So
Jihad’s mom, and his uncle who bought the shirt (who also claims he
never considered the shirt political, and didn’t even mean it as a
joke), were called in by the police for questioning, which can be a
particularly scary experience in France as compared to the US, where
it’s still not fun.
Mom was asked all sorts of odd questions like whether she timed the
birth for September 11, and uncle was questioned about terrorist links,
of course.
Decoration in the Great Mosque of Paris
Eventually, the prosecutor did find a law to go after the mom and her
brother (the boy’s uncle) for a 1918 law called “apology for a crime.”
I did some research on “apologie de crime” and it exists in Argentina
as well (I’m sure among other places). It seems to be exactly what it
sounds like – publicly defending a crime, in this case the prosecutor
alleges that the uncle and mother are defending the September 11
attacks.
Initially they were going after the mom and uncle for a several
thousand dollar fine, but now have reduced their request to a symbolic
one euro fine. But, as the Post notes, good luck getting on an airplane
ever again after being convicted of having sympathies with the
September 11 attacks.
I really do find this story fascinating, because it gets to the heart
of what I used to love about 60 Minutes back when we were kids, and LA
Law (of all things) did a good job of this as well – presenting both
sides of a story in a way that you full appreciated each side, and even
felt your loyalties shifting as you learned more facts. This story felt
that way to me. At first, I was outraged that a mother would put that
shirt on her kid (not that I’d prosecute). Now I’m not sure what to
think.
Is it really possible that the mom and the uncle had no idea that the
t-shirt would be perceived as it was? And then there’s the larger
question of countries have laws against such things as, basically, hate
speech. We protect such speech here, generally. In Europe, less so.
Then again, Europe has had a different history than we’ve had, in terms
of the impact of hate on the continent (though this particular law was
passed way before Hitler). But you could argue that slavery was
our
unique history based on hate, so perhaps things aren’t that different
there than here, in terms of each locale having a history of
discrimination.
What do you think? Is naming your kid Jihad akin to that story we ran years about the couple that named their Adolf Hitler Campbell (his
siblings were named JoyceLynn Aryan Nation and Honszlynn Hinler
Jeanne)? And should the mom face any kind of official blowback for
putting a t-shirt like this on her kid, even if she did in fact mean it
to be a reference to September 11 (which she denies)?
James
Tazruk, an Inupiaq subsistence hunter in Point Lay, Alaska, shot a lone
polar bear. Only when he rolled the carcass over did he realize the
bear was a nursing mother. Tazruk and his hunting partner then searched
for the bear's den, knowing a cub would be there. They found Kali hidden
about 1500 feet away.
