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OIC CALLS FRENCH GENOCIDE VOTE 'NONSENSE,' REJECTS IT
Today's Zaman
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-266510-oic-calls-french-genocide-vote-nonsense-rejects-it.html
Dec 23 2011
Turkey
The head of the world's largest Muslim organization on Friday strongly
criticized a French vote to adopt a bill criminalizing the denial of
Armenian genocide claims, calling it "nonsense."
Ekmeleddin İhsanoglu, who heads the 57-nation Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC), said France was in a "paradoxical contradiction,"
championing freedom of expression on the one hand while passing
legislation to ban debate on a "claim regarding history."
"The OIC rejects this nonsense," İhsanoglu told the Anatolia news
agency on the sidelines of an OIC meeting in İstanbul. "There
are three principles at the core of the French Republic: liberty,
equality and fraternity. To me, this legislation inflicts harm on at
least two of them."
İhsanoglu also lambasted what he called an "unacceptable
contradiction" in Europe over freedom of expression, saying caricatures
insulting Prophet Muhammad are defended in the name of free speech
while such a bill could be enacted in the French parliament.
France formally recognized in 2001 Armenian claims that Armenians
in Eastern Anatolia were subject to a systematic genocide campaign
during the final years of the Ottoman Empire, but provided no penalty
for anyone refuting that. The National Assembly, the lower house
of the French parliament, passed a bill on Thursday which sets a
punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros
($59,000) for those who deny or "outrageously minimize" the killings,
putting such action on par with denial of the Holocaust. An amendment
proposal exempting academic and scientific studies on the issue was
withdrawn after lengthy debates.
"When you criticize those who insult others, our Prophet and sacred
values, we are told that this is freedom of expression. When someone
draws uncivilized caricatures about our most sacred values, no
punishment is considered because they say it is an issue of freedom
of expression. Now, the same people who defend these [insults and
caricatures] pass a bill to punish those who do not accept this claim
about history," İhsanoglu said. "This is undisputedly an unacceptable
contradiction."
Today's Zaman
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-266510-oic-calls-french-genocide-vote-nonsense-rejects-it.html
Dec 23 2011
Turkey
The head of the world's largest Muslim organization on Friday strongly
criticized a French vote to adopt a bill criminalizing the denial of
Armenian genocide claims, calling it "nonsense."
Ekmeleddin İhsanoglu, who heads the 57-nation Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC), said France was in a "paradoxical contradiction,"
championing freedom of expression on the one hand while passing
legislation to ban debate on a "claim regarding history."
"The OIC rejects this nonsense," İhsanoglu told the Anatolia news
agency on the sidelines of an OIC meeting in İstanbul. "There
are three principles at the core of the French Republic: liberty,
equality and fraternity. To me, this legislation inflicts harm on at
least two of them."
İhsanoglu also lambasted what he called an "unacceptable
contradiction" in Europe over freedom of expression, saying caricatures
insulting Prophet Muhammad are defended in the name of free speech
while such a bill could be enacted in the French parliament.
France formally recognized in 2001 Armenian claims that Armenians
in Eastern Anatolia were subject to a systematic genocide campaign
during the final years of the Ottoman Empire, but provided no penalty
for anyone refuting that. The National Assembly, the lower house
of the French parliament, passed a bill on Thursday which sets a
punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros
($59,000) for those who deny or "outrageously minimize" the killings,
putting such action on par with denial of the Holocaust. An amendment
proposal exempting academic and scientific studies on the issue was
withdrawn after lengthy debates.
"When you criticize those who insult others, our Prophet and sacred
values, we are told that this is freedom of expression. When someone
draws uncivilized caricatures about our most sacred values, no
punishment is considered because they say it is an issue of freedom
of expression. Now, the same people who defend these [insults and
caricatures] pass a bill to punish those who do not accept this claim
about history," İhsanoglu said. "This is undisputedly an unacceptable
contradiction."