French comic tries to justify criticism of Holocaust 'pornography'

[emad]

The Independent
By Alex Duval Smith in Paris
22 February 2005


A flare-up of racial tension has been sparked off in France after a black stand-up comic, Dieudonné, was reported to have said that the 60th anniversary commemorations of the Holocaust were "remembrance pornography".

Amid wide reporting of the comment by the half-French, half-Cameroonian performer, vandals attacked prominent Muslim and Jewish sites. Swastikas were daubed both on the walls of the Grande Mosquée in Paris and a Second World War railway carriage that stands as a Jewish memorial at a deportation assembly point in the suburb of Drancy.

Police did not suggest that Dieudonné had sparked the attacks but it became clear that his comment was in line with the position of a new internet petition calling for the crimes of colonialism to be recognised and suggesting that Zionists had inspired the French state ban on Muslim headscarves.

Dieudonné's comment was made at a press conference in the Algerian capital, Algiers, last week and picked up by a website covering Middle Eastern affairs as "offensive to the memory of the Holocaust". Dieudonné held a press conference in Paris at the weekend in which he attempted to explain his views.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=613484

[UL_Approved]

1. If you poke the bear, it gets angry

This guy runs down that fine line of criticism that is the cutting edge.

He makes reference to the "horribly abused Jews", and the enormous media campaign to educate people of the Holocaust.

I've said this before: the Holocaust DOES NOT elevate the Jewish people to Sacred Cow status. They have the same moral and diplomatic responsibilities as the rest of the world.

Just because Hitler tried to exterminate them, doesn't mean that they can turn around and do it to the Palestinians. I think that the comic in question is crude and inconsiderate, but that this is exactly what makes him good. No PC, no bullshit.

[Village Idiot]

2. Deleted - should have read the article before posting!!!

I'm a DOLT!!!

[Flagg]

3. ....