Je Suis Charlie

Is it though? Perhaps they want to be caught and identified, just as he killers of Lee Rigby and other perpetrators of Islamist atrocities do/did.

Yes, I agree, that's the most likely explanation

You speak a lot of sense, FN. France's handling of its (mostly North African) since decolonisation has been woeful, and the festering resentment of disaffected Muslim youth has proved fertile for Islamist extremists.

There's an interesting piece in the Mail today by Simon Heffer, here. I don't agree with all of it but it is certainly well-argued.

Here in the UK, the problem is rather different and has been around since the 1980s, and the Rushdie affair. It was the craven appeasement by much of the establishment (including much of the liberal Left and the intelligentsia), coupled with the government and security's misguided obsession with Irish Republicanism and Leftist so-called "enemies within" that allowed the cancer of religious extremism to grow, almost unnoticed, and certainly unheeded. Blair's catastrophic adventure in Iraq, plus successive governments' toleration or encouragement of "faith" schools has only made things worse.

And one of the victims (a policeman) was also a Muslim. But then again, more (moderate) Muslims have been killed by militant Muslims than by the wicked West.

He was talking about Arabs and their fissiparousness, however, not Muslims in general.

The full quote is: "Sherif Ali, so long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people, greedy, barbarous, and cruel, as you are."

And - I think, but not 100% sure so apologies in advance if I'm wrong - the words are from screenwriters Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson, not from Lawrence himself; spoken, of course, by the great Peter O'Toole.

Why did they wear balaclavas?

They didn't want to frighten people with their ugly faces?

Or maybe the ID card was for some reason unknowingly left behind by one of the murderers during their panic to get away?

Debs 

If you only knew......

I have no idea. And nor do you. 

Just like the Arab passports found in the wreckage of the Twin Towers?

Show me where I have detailed a conspiracy theory and I will buy you 10,000GBP worth of Naim gear. If you can't show me where I have detailed you can send 100GBP to a charity of my choosing. 

You are quite right, the partial quote is just something that comes to my mind when I see the ultimate futility of certain groups' actions. Having watched the film "Intouchable", the comic imagery of the prophet in the wheelchair cartoon is very clever and to be murdered for something like this is at the very least 'silly'! I apologise for being somewhat glib in my posting, the constant rounds of human 'offence' and 'self-righteousness' caused by ego masquerading as faith leave me drained...

Immaculate and hot off print.

Why wouldn't Arab passports be found as Arabs were killed along with many other races. I expect some passports of other races were found too.

Mind you they were probably planted by the people fixing the explosives in the Twin Towers.

+1

Debs, as bank robbers and hijackers have known for years, the balaclava is an instrument of fear...

I'll forgo the Naim offer thanks, and to be honest, with a tax bill looming I haven't got £100 to spare to give to charity at the mo.

But this certainly has the whiff of a conspiracy theory about it, don't you think? I'm no great fan of Israel's behaviour towards the Palestinians, nor of Netanyahu's oafish conflation of Hamas and ISIL, but really?

Dec.2014 France votes to recognise Palestine. Israel is furious. 

Jan.2015 Unidentified gunmen shoot innocent civilians and are alleged to have shouted pro-Islamic fundamentalist slogans.

I suppose they may have worn them simply to hide their personal identity as to give a media focus [in their minds] to a justified and orderly execution in the name of their cause.

Although this doesn't seem to have worked - if the French authorities are correct in identifying them as two brothers who are known for previous form.

I don't believe in any conspiracy theory here, this act was an atrocity, and which even with careful planning was highly liable to end in the death or capture of the gunmen. In other words, they may not have anticipated an escape from the scene of the crime.

I hope they are caught and stopped from killing anyone else very soon.

Debs

And one of the two brothers was known to the police, he even spent some time in a French jail in 2008 for helping others join the fight in Iraq. So much for your brilliant theory. This is crazy.

I thought that was the balalaika ...

je suis Charlie, aussi...

Be afraid, be very afraid....

+1

Are you not getting mixed up with the baklava???

Sorry if I've offended anyone...

I thought that was the balalaika ...

Dear FrenchNaim,

I think you have found yourself the possible unwitting victim of some very English [Anglo-Saxon] humour, and this is more or less incomprehensible to anyone else. Gallows humour if you see what I mean.

I am sure you offended no-one!

I may add that I am in deep sympathy with the French Nation in its sad hour.

My Norwegian side says that this is not unlike the Breivik incident in Norway and that took everyone there by a surprise that still is not really understood even now.

My best wishes from George

No George, this was just a feeble attempt at British humour (balaclava, balalaika... why not baklava, after all).

Obviously this was a miserable failure, I was simply apologising to the numerous fans of baklava, which, I seem to remember, is some sort of gooey pastry from the Middle East - one never knows, these days.