mediawatchwatch.org.uk

The Middle East Times tells the story of a cafe in the Belleville banlieu of Paris which wanted to display an exhibition of blasphemous cartoons.

La Mer à Boire had put up around 50 drawings by well-known French cartoonists, each mocking some aspect of religion and religious belief. No particular relgion was targeted, and there were none of the Mo-toons. But a gang of children who played football across the street from the café accused the owners of being “racist” and proceeded to attack the drawings with sticks and iron rods. The customers chased them away, but they kept coming back.

Then some older youths approached the café owners:

“They said they did not approve of what the youngsters had done. But what we were doing was unacceptable, too. They warned us that if we didn’t take down the cartoons they would call in the Muslim Brothers who would burn the cafe down,” said Marianne. “They kept saying: ‘This is our home. You cannot act like this here’,” she said.

The café owners refused to take the exhibition down, but covered each picture with a sheet of paper bearing the word “censuré”. Customers can still see the cartoon if they lift the sheet.