French police arrest several Christians for protesting attacks on Christians



In the wake of the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony mocking the Last Supper, members of a conservative advocacy group headed to Paris to protest such routinized attacks on Christianity. They were promptly arrested and left to conclude that the underlying problem is perhaps worse than first imagined.

The watchdog group Open Doors revealed in its latest annual report that one in seven Christians worldwide — over 365 million Christians — faces "high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith."

Blaze News previously reported that the 10 worst countries for Christians are North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Iran, and Afghanistan. Christians stand a good chance of being tortured, imprisoned, raped, and murdered for their faith in these third-world nations as well as in countries far higher up the list, such as China.

Attacks on Christians and on their churches are not limited, however, to Africa, the Middle East, or the Orient.

Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the FRC, revealed in a report earlier this year that between 2018 and 2023, there were at least 915 acts of hostility against American churches. Canada, too, has seen hundreds of churches razed by radicals since 2021.

Against this backdrop of anti-Christian persecution and hatred, the French — who have seen their fair share of anti-Christian attacks — kicked off the 2024 Olympics with a ceremony mocking Christianity.

The opening ceremony contained a scene intended to resemble Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper." However, instead of depicting Christ and his disciples, the ceremony's designer, Thomas Jolly, instead had several transvestites strike poses on either sides of a morbidly obese lesbian named Barbara Butch.

Jolly then had a virtually naked man painted blue — intended to represent Dionysus, Greek god of wine-making — set upon the table as a substitute meal.

The ceremony generated significant controversy and elicited denunciations from various Christian institutions around the world, including the Vatican.

The Madrid-based conservative advocacy group CitizenGo started a petition demanding an apology and an explanation from all members of the International Olympic Committee.

"Enough is enough! This grotesque spectacle was an affront to everything we hold sacred, and it cannot go unchallenged," said the petition, which had over 392,500 signatures at the time of publication.

"All too often, we stand by and do nothing while they step on us and mock our Christian faith. But after today, I’ve seriously had enough! What happens if we stay silent? Our faith, our Christian symbols, will become a permanent parody promoted by queer, LGBTI, and trans lobbies, backed by our globalist leaders and the international left."

CitizenGo sent a bus into the heart of Paris Monday with "Stop attacks on Christians!" written on the side.

The bus was also emblazoned on one side with images of both Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" as well as a photograph of the Olympic ceremony mocking the religious imagery, striking a damning contrast.

Catholic activist Caroline Farrow alleged that despite having no issues early in the day, the bus was ultimately stopped "at gunpoint" by French police who surrounded the vehicle and claimed they were "conducting a 'public demonstration without the government's permission.'"

'They are tyrannical, anti-Christian bullies.'

A lawyer for the group claimed, "It appears impossible to constitute the crime of failing to communicate a protest because there is no protest in the presence of one unique vehicle. The prosecutor pushed the law to its limits to stop the bus and limit their free speech."

According to Farrow, six members of her team — including two from the U.K. — were arrested, then taken to the police station "where they were put in handcuffs and transferred to a second secure facility."

"They are tyrannical, anti-Christian bullies. It's absurd," the group said on X.

"Fearing the campaign's impact and the stain on France's image to the world, the political elites viciously censored CitizenGO in a manner akin to an authoritarian regime," continued Farrow. "The French police, under political orders from high-level political authorities, arrested six campaigners and the bus driver. All of their belongings were confiscated, they were stripped and searched, and they were illegally denied to call their personal lawyers. [S]ome were even not allowed to call their family members and were held on non-existent charges."

Farrow suggested further that the effort to shut up the protesters backfired, granted their bus, which was "clearly offensive to the French police and authorities, [was] still parked at the Police Station in District 16th, 3 blocks from the Arc de Triumph in front of everyone in the middle of downtown Paris."

The conservative group indicated that French police escorted their bus out of the city the next day.

Ignacio Arsuaga, president of CitizenGo, tweeted, "Our lawyer tells us there is no case, and that the prosecutor ordered the gendarmerie to arrest the campaigners even though there was no case."

"We are now going to file a lawsuit against Macron, the Attorney General, and the gendarmerie. Woke governments are becoming increasingly totalitarian," added Arsuaga.

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Four toddlers savagely stabbed by Syrian asylum-seeker in French playground rampage now in stable condition



A 31-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker slashed his way through a French park and into a playground Thursday, trying desperately to butcher every child within reach.

Four toddlers, between the ages of 1 and 3, were cut up along with two adults, ages 70 and 78. Despite their life-threatening wounds, all victims survived, though two remain in critical condition.

The attacker, identified as Abdalmasih H., moved from Syria to Sweden in 2013, where he married a native Swede whom he previously met in Turkey. The couple, who have a 3-year-old together, recently split up, reported the Telegraph.

The attacker, recently fined for simultaneously claiming a student grant and unemployment support, had his asylum request granted in Sweden in April 2023, though made clear he'd prefer to live in France, having submitted an asylum bid to that effect in November 2022.

While French authorities rejected his asylum request on April 26, his approved claim in Sweden enabled the attacker to travel throughout the European Union passport-free, reported Sky News.

Thursday morning, just days after the attacker was notified his asylum request had been rejected, he reportedly stalked his victims in the Paquier park on the shores of Lake Annecy.

A witness, identified as Ferdinand, told the broadcaster BFMTV that after the attacker entered the playground, "he started screaming, he walked towards the strollers and started repeatedly stabbing the little ones."

The attacker, wearing a headscarf, can be seen in footage of the incident circling the playground and brandishing a long knife then tangling with a 24-year-old man with a backpack who attempted to block his way.

The 24-year-old, a man named Henri on a tour of France's cathedrals, was under the mistaken impression the attacker was merely trying to steal a purse until he saw the suspect slash the children, reported the New York Times.

Henri attempted to intervene, but the attacker managed to chase down then slash a woman pushing a stroller. Unlike a number of the male passersby, the woman put up a tremendous fight, protecting the baby in the stroller then grappling with the knife-wielding maniac.

Despite the woman's efforts, the Syrian asylum-seeker managed to land a few stabs into the stroller.

The attacker made a couple more passes through the playground before fleeing with Henri hot on his heels and four badly injured toddlers in his wake.

Two of the young victims were French, one was British, and the other was Dutch, according to lead prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said that all four children underwent surgery and are "under constant medical surveillance" but remain in stable condition, reported NBC News.

The attacker, chased by Henri and others, made his way into an open field where law enforcement intercepted him.

"When he saw that he was surrounded by the police, he went to a couple and he stabbed the elderly person," Ferdinand told BFMTV.

The attacker managed to stab a 78-year-old six times.

Former Liverpool footballer Anthony Le Tallec, who was jogging around Lake Annecy at the time, recalled, "I said to the police, ‘Shoot him, kill him! He’s stabbing everyone,'" reported the Associated Press.

BFMTV indicated that the 78-year-old was caught in the crossfire, catching a bullet from police as they attempted to subdue the attacker. Police managed to put a bullet in the attacker as well, hitting him in the leg.

The arrest was caught on video:
\u201cMoment zatrzymania sprawcy ataku terrorystycznego na 3letnie dzieci #AbdalmasihH /kolorowego imigranta z Syrii. Jezioro #Annecy \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7\u2757\ud83d\ude21\u201d
— Rob Ptaszewski\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf1 (@Rob Ptaszewski\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf1) 1686248410


Henri said, "It is profoundly un-Christian to attack the vulnerable. The entire Christian civilisation on which our country is built is a knightly message to defend widows and orphans," reported the Independent.

French National Assembly Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet said there is "nothing more abominable than to attack children."

French President Emmanuel Macron, who last year pushed for asylum-seekers to be spread to the country's rural areas rather than ejected, stressed that his administration was "working hard to welcome these refugees" and said the "nation is in shock," calling the attack one of "absolute cowardice."

A nauseating video of the attacker's attempted massacre briefly went viral on social media; however, there has been a concerted effort to remove and suppress it.

Various accounts that had posted the video on Twitter — including conservative commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek, Radio Genova, French politician Damien Rieu, and news outfit Visegrád 24 — indicated the platform had deleted the video or forced them to do so.

While the gruesome evidence of yet another European knife attack was being scrubbed online, liberal media outlets appeared to downplay critical details about the attacker's identity.

The Twitter account End Wokeness highlighted a common omission in mainstream media reports on the Syrian asylum-seeker's attack:

\u201c4 kids and 2 adults were just stabbed at a playground in Annecy, France\n\nThe attacker was a Syrian refugee but the media conveniently buries that detail\u201d
— End Wokeness (@End Wokeness) 1686229939

France has suffered a number of knife attacks by foreign nationals in recent years, including the October 2020 beheading of French secondary school teacher Samuel Paty in Paris by Abdoullakh Abouyezidovich Anzorov, an 18-year-old Islamic refugee of Chechen origin.

The South China Morning Post indicated that this latest attack will prompt greater scrutiny of France's immigration and asylum policy, particularly with mounting pressure from right-wing politicians.

Eric Ciotti, head of the French Republicans party, said, "The investigation will determine what happened, but it seems like the culprit has the same profile that you see often in these attacks."

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French woman arrested, faces $13,000 fine for calling President Macron 'filth' on Facebook



In the wake of Parisian schoolteacher Samuel Paty's beheading by an Islamic terrorist in 2020, French President Emmanuel Macron claimed he would continue "the fight for freedom."

That fight for freedom appears to have been short-lived or, at the very least, narrowly constructed.

A middle-aged French woman identified as Valérie was recently arrested and now faces a crushing penalty for allegedly calling Macron "filth" online.

Valérie, who hails from the northern French commune of Saint-Martin-lez-Tatinghem, wrote in a March 21 Facebook post, "This piece of filth is going to address you at 1:00 pm… it's always on television that we see this filth."

The post was in reference to Macron's televised TF1/France 2 interview on March 22 where he discussed raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 and suggested that the French people needed to make sacrifices — while allegedly concealing his luxury wristwatch worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Valérie, who had previously taken part in the populist "Yellow Vest" protests critical of Macron's administration, was not alone in her antipathy for the former World Economic Forum's Young Global Leader.

After 10 days of protests, roughly 740,000 protesters took to the streets on March 28 to denounce Macron and his proposed pension plan changes, reported France 24.

Amid the unrest, Valérie was reportedly arrested in northern France on March 24 and charged with "public insult to the President of the Republic by word, written image or means of communication by electronic voice."

Mehdi Benbouzid, the prosecutor in the town of Saint Omer, told AFP that Valérie was held in custody for questioning and faces a fine of 12,000 euros if convicted at her trial on June 20.

"They want to make an example of me," Valérie told the regional newspaper La Voix du Nord.

"I asked them if it was a joke, I had never been arrested," Valérie added. "I am not public enemy number one."

In 1881, after the collapse of the Second French Empire (France is presently on its fifth republic since 1792), the National Assembly passed a law making it illegal to insult the French president. The purpose of this legislation was, in part, to bolster the relatively impotent figurehead at the time, Jules Grèvy, reported the Washington Post.

Grèvy had been called a "profane thug" and an iconoclastic boor (i.e., "goujat iconoclaste") by a man named Simon Boubée, whom the regime saw fit to make an example of.

The law was used against critics of the powerful nine times between 1881 and 1958. The punishment for this supposed crime is jail time or a fine.

The French Parliament all but overturned the law 132 years after its ratification, but it is still on the books. This change was triggered by a European Court of Human Rights ruling, which found that freedom of expression had been violated in the case of a protester who was punished for issuing choice words to then-President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Since the ostensible change to the law in 2013, the Local indicated many thousands of Frenchmen have blasted Macron and his presidency. While the law has largely been put out of use, the prosecutor Benbouzid indicated that prosecution is permitted "on condition that the victim files a complaint," reported La Voix du Nord.

A state representative filed the complaint on Macron's behalf.

While France has an extradition treaty with the United States, Americans can freely and without fear of fine insult Macron online.

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AP Stylebook recommends against 'dehumanizing 'the' labels,' like 'the French,' then deletes post due to 'inappropriate reference to French people'



The Associated Press Stylebook's Twitter account has deleted a tweet that used the term "the French."

The post suggested that writers should avoid using "the" in front of words describing groups of people, advising against phrases such as "the French."

"We recommend avoiding general and often dehumanizing 'the' labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the French, the disabled, the college-educated. Instead, use wording such as people with mental illnesses. And use these descriptions only when clearly relevant," the now-deleted post read.

\u201cThe AP is sticking to telling reporters not to write THE French. \n\nAP deleted tweet on left\u201d
— Emily Miller (@Emily Miller) 1674835649

But the Associated Press has said that including the phrase "the French" was not appropriate — ironically, while issuing the mea culpa, the AP still included the supposedly unacceptable phrase: "The use of 'the French' in this tweet by @AP was inappropriate and has caused unintended offense. An updated tweet is upcoming."

\u201c@APStylebook The use of \u201cthe French\u201d in this tweet by @AP was inappropriate and has caused unintended offense. An updated tweet is upcoming.\u201d
— The Associated Press (@The Associated Press) 1674807503

"We deleted an earlier tweet because of an inappropriate reference to French people. We did not intend to offend," the APStylebook account tweeted. "Writing French people, French citizens, etc., is good. But 'the' terms for any people can sound dehumanizing and imply a monolith rather than diverse individuals."

The now-deleted post caught the attention of the French Embassy in the U.S., which posted a screenshot in which it had typed "Embassy of Frenchness in the US" into the name form on its Twitter profile editing box.

\u201cI guess this is us now...\u201d
— French Embassy U.S. (@French Embassy U.S.) 1674771552

Wealthy business tycoon Elon Musk wrote, "So then why do call yourself 'The' Associated Press.'"

"I agree, these days we probably should label 'the college-educated' people with mental illnesses instead," Ben Shapiro tweeted.

"The AP has declared the word 'the' offensive. I thought this was a @TheBabylonBee story for a second - and I run The Babylon Bee," the satire website's editor-in-chief Kyle Mann tweeted.

\u201cThe AP has declared the word "the" offensive. I thought this was a @TheBabylonBee story for a second - and I run The Babylon Bee.\u201d
— Kyle Mann (@Kyle Mann) 1674830226

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