Catholic Priest Beheaded in France, President Vows to Win War on Terror

ISIS claimed responsibility.

BLEVENNEC/Presidence/SIPA/Newscom

The president of France called the beheading of an 86-year-old Catholic priest during a Mass at a Normandy church for which the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility a "cowardly assassination," saying ISIS had "declared war" on France. "We must win that war," he told reporters, according to CNN. "We must fight this war by all means, while respecting the rule of law, what makes us a democracy," Hollande continued.

The two attackers were shot and killed by police after exiting the church, and one of the worshippers they attacked is in critical condition. One of the attackers was reportedly being tracked by French authorities after a previous terrorism-related charge, and was required to wear an electronic bracelet and live with his parents.

"When a priest is attacked, it is all of France that has been hurt," France President Francois Hollande said in a statement. The number of self-identified Catholics dropped to 51 percent in a 2007 survey, down from about 80 percent as recently as the early 1990s.

France has been in a terror-induced state of emergency since the Paris attacks in November, with the concomitant crackdown on civil liberties. Hollande says he rejects calls by the opposition for even more terror laws. "Restricting our freedoms will not make the fight against terrorism more effective," Hollande said.

Comments

[WhatAboutBob]

Islam, the religion of peace!

[Bra Ket]

More like the religion of Mass murder.

[Zero Sum Game]

That picture and its alt-text. Masterful.

[Zero Sum Game]

An alternative:

After your successes here in France, what will you do next?

"Je vais ? Disney World!"

[Zero Sum Game]

I thought about it more and can't decide if it's overly crass to mock them too much for this. My gut reaction was just to laugh because France fucked itself over and that picture just makes me think of Bush congratulating FEMA director Michael Brown for doing a "helluva job" in the wake of Katrina.

On the one hand, you've got agents of the state having to clean up a mess created by other agents of the state and doing predictably poorly at a nigh-impossible job.

On the other hand, you've got the suspension of all sorts of rights and fucking over the citizenry and everyone in the state from top to bottom is complicit in enforcement.

There are people worth feeling sorry for. Obviously the victims never deserve this, nor do all the people who didn't vote for this shit and don't want it. There are a lot of people in France who are responsible for this and brought this down on all of them. They should let their people arm themselves and protect themselves, but that's not going to happen in France.

[Free Society]

So sick of Islam and it's adherents. Yes yes they aren't all terrorists, some of them are rapists, gangsters and violent criminals or just plain loathsome individuals. Some I assume are good people, insofar as they are un-Islamic.

[PapayaSF]

I now see Islam as a worldwide Good Cop/Bad Cop routine. The "good" Muslims are supposed to tell us what to do so that we are protected from the terrorists, but they're actually both on the same team.

[Jerry on the rocks]

Assad must be laughing his ass off right now.

[Free Society]

I'm just scratching my head as to why our western governments routinely side with Islamist brutes over secular brutes, if they must side with brutes at all. Assad for all his faults, doesn't strive to conquer and enslave the world at every opportunity, you'd think there'd be areas where interests overlap. This is where ideological foreign policy gets you, into ideological wars for ideological goals that can never be met. The world will be safe for democracy any day now I'm told.

[Suthenboy]

Don't forget the story of the good terrorists in Syria that Cankles gave guns to; they beheaded an 11 year old boy and then sat around deliberating on how they were going to cook him.

Or the human slaughterhouses being operated there by the good terrorists...

Someone remind me why we want Assad gone?

[ThomasD]

Assad, Khaddafi, Saddam, at this point what difference does it make?

[John Titor]

When President Bush threw Syria into his 'Axis of Evil' arguments, Assad continued to provide intelligence to the United States in regards to homegrown Islamic terrorist groups.

The man is no saint but he's clearly willing to work with the U.S. when their interests line up. I've been saying since day one of ISIS rolling into Iraq that a smart politician would be calling Assad up and working out a deal.

[ant1sthenes]

Before Turkey implemented a permanent state of emergency, France did the same. If you want a police state, you need people to be afraid.

[Robert]

Assad for all his faults, doesn't strive to conquer and enslave the world at every opportunity,

Just Israel. But, you know what? He's worth that price, especially if friends like the Russians can tame him. You play ball w us, we'll play ball w you. Realpolitik.

[mashed potatoes]

Assad tried to strIke a peace deal with Israel like Egypt when Sharon wad in power, 2009. Dick Chaney told the Israelis, oh no you don't.

[mashed potatoes]

Der, 2007

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Assad must be laughing his ass off right now.

He was able to bring the US and Russia into an unwitting alliance against his insurgency. Of course he's laughing.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'm beginning to think things in Europe might start getting ugly.

[KDN]

I think that the French government should hold an ISIS recruitment drive, volunteering to ship all those that wish to join ISIS to Raqqa, and sink the transport ship while it's en route. Sure, it would only work once, but there's a 50/50 shot that these retards are stupid enough to sign up.

Also, these wannabe ISIS goons are French: they practically expect the government to take financial responsibility for their wish fulfillment.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Just put them on board the Rainbow Warrior.

What, too obscure for this group?

[Suthenboy]

Eventually people will get enough of that shit, even the brainwashed proggies have their limits.

[Free Society]

It comes down to whether westerners learn their hard lesson sooner rather than later. I'd rather they not be so late to the party that there's no going back.

[ThomasD]

If Europe is good at anything it is good at religious warfare. Really good.

Hollande fears such a war, not because of the prospective death toll, but because he knows that, should one erupt, he and his sort of cronies will not be the ones in charge any more.

[PapayaSF]

Europe was good at religious warfare, back when they were Christians....

[bacon-magic]

Fist,
Do you think Europe's barbarian roots are woke yet? /follower of the Jacket

[Rich]

Young Muslims Threaten Nudist Bathers With 'Extermination'

The men insulted and threatened the nudists in both German and Arabic, yelling "Allahu akbar" at the bathers along with other Arabic insults.

"'Allahu akbar' is not an insult! Fatwa against the blasphemer!"

[Suthenboy]

Earlier someone was wondering what goal these people seek. I was accused of soiling myself when I pointed out that their goal is the conquest of Europe. That is what they say their goal is and their behavior is consistent with that.

[bacon-magic]

You pants shitter! How stupid are you to believe what the terrorists are actually saying and doing! Shame. Shame. Shame.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Look, anything that curbs German nudity is going to get a pass with me.

[paranoid android]

"We must fight this war by all means, while respecting the rule of law, what makes us a democracy," Hollande continued.

"Now please grant me another extension to the state of emergency I'm using to suspend the rule of law".

It is funny how quickly the media stopped their lauding of Hollande as a respectable socialist leader American politicians should emulate once all of his press releases started to sound like they could have come from the Bush White House.

[ThomasD]

Those Bush White House press releases being exactly how respectable socialist leaders sound once their citizens start getting slaughtered in the streets.

[Domestic Dissident]

One of the attackers was reportedly being tracked by French authorities after a previous terrorism-related charge, and was required to wear an electronic bracelet and live with his parents.

Huh. I guess that didn't work!

[ant1sthenes]

You know, I'm the first to decry pointless tough on crime BS, but maybe France should use more muscular deterrents against terrorists rather than placing them under house arrest. You know, like a bullet in the head, and put their bodies on a pike in the town square as a warning to the rest?

And, if that is too racist, perhaps the people of France should just start with their leaders, to show that no one is too big to impale.

[PapayaSF]

+1, and another +1 for your closing phrase.

[thrakkorzog]

Yep, the guy was busted trying to sneak into Syria twice, and so his punishment was having to wear an ankle bracelet with free movement during morning hours.

[RBS]

required to wear an electronic bracelet and live with his parents.

I thought Cytotoxic lived in Canada?

[Zero Sum Game]

Living isn't quite the right word for it. I like parasitizing better.

[Free Society]

'Pigeon chessing' isn't a word or that'd be the one.

[ant1sthenes]

You know who else thought their community was superior and destined for world domination, really hated the French, weren't big on Africans, wanted to murder gays, Jews, and other religious minorities, were guilty of mass atrocities, whose danger was ignored by Western leaders and whose power was courted by Marxists, and who took control of a once-great developed nation through means of a false coup followed by purges, an enabling act, and a collapse of liberal democratic institutions?

At the rate things are going, it'll only be a few more years until ISIS is lead by an Austrian convert named Mohammed bin Hitler.

[Marty Comanche]

You know who else thought their community was superior and destined for world domination, really hated the French,

John McCain?

weren't big on Africans, wanted to murder gays, Jews, and other religious minorities, were guilty of mass atrocities, whose danger was ignored by Western leaders and whose power was courted by Marxists, and who took control of a once-great developed nation through means of a false coup followed by purges, an enabling act, and a collapse of liberal democratic institutions?

Oh, OK. The rest of that doesn't apply.

[Vampire]

That gun control works great in France. Sheeople have such a strong belief that only their masters deserve to be protected by firearms, all while they stay defenseless. So much so that pieces of shit can walk right into church and behead someone with no resistance.

Then these douchebags have nerve to respond "what if the shooter missed, and hit an innocent". Ah, so long as noone shot an innocent bystander, it's ok that folks get massacred so long as there is strict gun control in place, and they waited for the police to get there.

[ThomasD]

This being France the average age of the parishioners in attendance was probably in the high sixties. I'd be shocked to hear any able bodied person under thirty was present at the time.

[Dennis, Constitutional Peasant]

the beheading of an 86-year-old Catholic priest during a Mass

On the upside, the Catholic Church at least gets a proper "Old-School Saint" made out of the guy.

It used to be you had to be eaten by bears, shot full of arrows, or set on fire to be a saint. These days that sort of thing is much harder to come by.

[Marty Comanche]

Wow. Denis doesn't seem like such a dorky name anymore.

[Marty Comanche]

Wow. Denis doesn't seem like such a dorky name anymore.

[Marty Comanche]

Now, if somebody could get around to martyring some squirrels ...

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Surely you mean "Martying" some squirrels?

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, if anything is likely to revive French interest in Christianity, it's giving them some brand new legitimate martyrs.

If the idiot murderers in ISIS keep it up, they might even provoke another crusade.

[ant1sthenes]

DEUS VULT

[Ken Shultz]

Also, when Christianity first emerged in the empire, it was helped along quite a bit by the emperors martyring innocent girls and such in the arena. I bet people in France who didn't care at all about the church are feeling sympathy for the church today because of this. And France can't defend thousands of churches from terrorism.

I don't know that atheists are more receptive to Christianity than Roman pagans were, but the Catholic church has survived for a long time because of cultural aspects that aren't necessarily tied to doctrine or belief.

France has some of the most impressive church architecture in the world. The mass is lovely. The music is fantastic. Christmas is fun and so is Easter.

I've known observant reformed Jews who were atheists. It wasn't about God to them. It was about tradition and culture and preservation and defiance of those who hated them and tried to kill them.

No good reason why that can't happen with Catholics in France.

[PapayaSF]

Except that French Catholics aren't having kids, but French Muslims are.

[Arizona_Guy]

I'll reiterate the observation that France will turn into Lebanon West.

[Ken Shultz]

If anything, that would be Algeria North--and parts of it have already been that for a long time.

Hundreds of thousands of Algerians fought for the French government in the Algerian War. Before 1962 (going back to the mid-1800s), Algeria was as much a part of France as Alaska is part of the United States. People went back and forth between them freely. When the French left in 1962, tens of thousands of Algerian Muslims who had sided with the government fled to France, as well. Those that stayed behind were massacred by the tens of thousands.

This latest problem appears to be a function of the new wave of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers that accompanied the Arab Spring in North Africa--that along with the emergence of ISIS.

In other words, Muslims weren't a huge terrorist threat for decades.

[PapayaSF]

Sadly, and frighteningly, those Algerian Muslims weren't radical or dangerous, but their kids and grandkids....

[Arizona_Guy]

Ken,

I was mainly referring to the sectarian violence in Lebanon. Well, and they speak French

[Ken Shultz]

"When a priest is attacked, it is all of France that has been hurt," France President Francois Hollande said in a statement. The number of self-identified Catholics dropped to 51 percent in a 2007 survey, down from about 80 percent as recently as the early 1990s."

Let's not take Hollande's statement too literally.

When a priest is attacked all of France--figuratively--has been hurt.

When all those people were carrying signs that read, "Je suis Charlie", that didn't mean they were--literally--working for Charlie Hebdo. Figuratively, however, they were expressing unity with Charlie Hebdo.

I'm neither French nor Catholic, and I find the whole story literally disturbing.

You might even say that when a peaceful person is murdered specifically because of his or her religious beliefs, free thinking people everywhere have been hurt by it.

[qjkxbmwvz]

What? France wants to fight a war on terror? Nononono... What they should be doing is petitioning the Pope for a crusade.

[buybuydandavis]

We must fight this war by all means

I predict an angry and resolute hashtag campaign. For a couple of weeks.

[dajjal]

Laicite - the Western Secular Caliphate of Peace as enforced by midnight raids and ankle monitors!

[epeeist]

The Yahoo news story linked to is missing one very important detail, the surveillance was deliberately deactivated several hours per day as part of the surveillance agreement!

"...One of the assailants was identified as Adel Kermiche, a 19-year-old who grew up in the town and tried to travel to Syria twice last year using family members' identity documents, but was arrested outside France and handed preliminary terrorism charges.

Kermiche was put under house arrest with an electronic surveillance bracelet after a judge overruled prosecutors and agreed to free him, Molins said. However, the bracelet was deactivated for a few hours every morning as part of the surveillance agreement, Molins said ? hours that corresponded to the time of Tuesday's attack...."

https://www.thestar.com [full link was too long, didn't allow me to post it]