Grateful Gaijin comments

@Jimizo

Charlie supports the Far Left. The Far Left is infamous for silencing dissension. The Far Right, too. ANY extremist group, in fact. Charlie wants a One Party government. They are against religion; it has to be silenced. They have their own 'No Go' areas for satire. I agree with what you say in regard to the fanatics. The French shouldn't give an inch to those who choose violence.

@harvey pekar

Well said! My motto is 'No Freedom Without Responsibility'.

Love them or hate them, but can we all stop lying that Charlie Hebdo promoted free speech. They promoted 'anything goes' as long as it didn't disagree with them. Is that free speech? They described themselves as 'Far-left wing'. Anyone like their country? You must be a Nationalist. Charlie would silence you. Even far-left wingers will readily admit you have no right to speak if you are A, B or C etc. If you respect them for attacking Islam, so be it. But please understand that politically they were Extremists, too!

@Jimizo

The secular democracy doesn't care for being intimidated? Does it condone the intimidation of people with strong personal beliefs? They didn't start attacking the State. Their personal beliefs were attacked first. Regardless of the sick retaliation, you seem to have it upside down. The separation of church and state means the State allows people to have their religion without fear of intimidation. That there was retaliation attests to the fact that they DID 'keep it personal'. The fact is CH took advantage of the State's freedom (which they obviously detest by trying to silence political parties and religions with the powerful weapon of ridicule) to provoke others' deeply personal beliefs, which they were NOT imposing on others. Breath taken. But I could be wrong. Gochisosama for the food for thought!

@Jimizo

No one has given you a CONVINCING reason, but maybe I'm your 'Man'. I equate politics with the general way we live together. Issues of wealth distribution, healthcare, environment etc. They directly involve us all. The biggest thing about religion is that it's deeply personal, regardless of the religion (perhaps), and involves respect for your loved ones, most importantly the deceased ones, in some cases. Death touches us all, indisputably, regardless of religion. Sometimes we only care about the death of ours, not others. Some may believe 'you insult mine, I'll deprive you of yours in revenge to teach you a lesson' but that can also be cultural, not religious. Anyway, manners and respect are not really necessary for politics but they are for most restaurants and others' personal beliefs. Sorry for the long post, but I didn't have time to make a short one!

Regardless to whether I agree with Mr Miyazaki, his view doesn't seem to be tempered by insular 'Island Mentality' at all. I feel he is putting forward an experienced worldly opinion. I hope no one is saying freedom of speech is important, but you're probably wrong if you are from a small place that has a religion.

@commanteer

You seem well-informed. In history, as we know it, cases of atrocities by mob rule are rare? We should get together and do away with the well-to-do. Hang on, I don't have the train fare!

@jerseyboy.

Denial of the Holocaust may be ok in the US and Iran, but in 15 European countries it is illegal to question it. And rightly so!

@Alex Einz

Most decent Jews would not condone 'any insult is ok' freedom of speech. Should we lay down our arms?

@StormR

No freedom without responsibility, is what I say. I wouldn't insult you and so I expect you wouldn't insult me. Total freedom of speech would be ugly, if we think about it.

@Thunderbird2

Real Christians would never belittle someone, especially the man they purport to revere. Don't know if there are 'fake' Christians, but I'm sure my point is valid.

@StormR

Your suggestion seems based purely on revenge for the IS beheadings. They already believe from the recent bombings that their enemies are overly brutal. Not sure what the answer is, but All of them that are killed will be celebrated martyrs. Just saying.

At first I was thinking it was an unfortunate loss of temper thing. While he was sleeping?? There was a build up before the "loss of temper". A bit of evil going on in her mind. As a rational Feminist, I think the others were just pre-empting the irrational 'you go, girl' crowd's comments. She says she hit him several times, but he was beaten to death. I wonder what with.

Quite an invasion of privacy. Maybe I'm ok if you ask me if I have any Gang tattoos.

@toshiko

Thanks for the excellent insight into Japanese attitudes towards religion. I agree with all you say. One thing I must say is that I have Jewish friends who are atheists and THEY might misunderstand that you believe all Jews are religious. May I ask whether most Japanese understand this? Karl Mark wasn't religious. Most Japanese don't care about anti-religion but Anti-Semites seem to blame all Jews.

@Ah_so

To my understanding, most Anti-Semites also focus on non-religious Jews. Communists or Capitalists, strangely enough.

@presto345

Very punishable, indeed, in some countries. In Germany, in one case, even the defense lawyer was sentenced to 3.5 years.

The intelligent reader who already has anti-Israeli sentiments wouldn't believe such a story. This doesn't reflect my sentiments about Israel at all. I have been the proud victor against many anti-Jewish debaters.

@John Bosworth. Please explain to us all. You insult Hidflect1 (I also want to give my opinion without fear of such an attack) because you can't see why an agent provocateur would create a fake Anti-Israel kook. But then you say the idiot has the required intelligence to see why. I think the Moderator and everyone else would agree that we shouldn't insult others on this forum. Thanks for sharing your opinion more gently in the future.

Very sad. Do the killers really think they have improved their own lives by such actions?

I have some friends in that community who are peace-loving and level-headed. Most communities have Deceptive Dereks who cannot wait to perform some kind of pernicious deed. Let's all hope that Justice WILL prevail!