Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Sky News

Brother of murdered French policeman: Do not confuse extremists with Muslims

Malek Merabet also chided the media for using footage of his brother’s killing.

RELATIVES OF AHMED Merabet, the policeman who was shot in cold blood as he tried to stop the Charlie Hebdo attackers from fleeing, paid a moving tribute today to a man they described as the “pillar” of their family.

One of the 17 victims of a three-day Islamist killing spree that has shaken France to the core, Merabet’s death Wednesday was caught on video – footage that was shown on television and that his partner said she saw without even knowing what she was watching.

“Ahmed, a man of commitment,” his brother Malek said, before breaking down in tears.

After a short moment, he continued: “(He) had the will to watch over his mum and his loved-ones since the death of his father 20 years ago.”

“A pillar of his family, his duties did not stop him from being a protective son, a teasing brother, a doting uncle and a loving companion,” he told a news conference.

Merabet was killed as Cherif and Said Kouachi escaped from the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo magazine after having mowed down 11 people inside.

Fired on by the attackers, he fell to the ground wounded. One of the two brothers then ran towards him and shot him dead at point-blank range.

A Muslim, Merabet was killed at the hands of men who claimed to be acting in the name of his religion.

Many in France’s Muslim community fear a backlash from the killings, and French leaders have repeatedly called for people not to confuse Islam with extremism.

“I am now telling all racists, Islamophobes and anti-Semites that one must not confuse extremists with Muslims,” Malek Merabet said, describing those responsible as “mad men”.

He also chided media for using the footage of his brother’s killing.

“How dare you take this video and broadcast it? I heard his voice, I recognised him, I saw him being killed and I continue to hear him every day.”

He told reporters the death of his brother was a “total waste”.

- © AFP 2015.

Read: ‘Should I tell them there was somebody else there?’: French hostage tells of life-or-death dilemma>

More: Taoiseach to attend massive ‘unity’ rally planned for Paris>

Author
View 305 comments
Close
305 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute lavbeer
    Favourite lavbeer
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 1:43 PM

    It’s hard to believe that the author didn’t mention that pro independent parties between them were a couple of percent short of 50%.

    83
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Skinnerbot
    Favourite Skinnerbot
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 4:26 PM

    @lavbeer: did they not take 70 out of 135 seats? Which is 52% of the seats by my maths?

    41
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute lavbeer
    Favourite lavbeer
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 4:48 PM

    @Skinnerbot: yes this wasn’t a referendum – but a popular vote wouldn’t have been passed. More voted for non-independence parties. The article unless the author was pushing an agenda should have stated such a basic fact. Imho- I am no expert.

    35
    See 4 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Skinnerbot
    Favourite Skinnerbot
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 4:56 PM

    @lavbeer: same with trump no? It’s quite trivial in a way given it led to 52% of the seats. Only 1 in every 3 votes agree with Fine Gaels policies here, funny thing democracy

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute lavbeer
    Favourite lavbeer
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 10:15 PM

    @Skinnerbot: true enough but if it was a referendum it wouldn’t have carried.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute lavbeer
    Favourite lavbeer
    Report
    Dec 23rd 2017, 6:18 AM

    @Declan Hegarty: bottom line is that three pro independence parties got 47.5 of the vote a few months after getting over 90 in a referendum that SF didn’t call out as being flawed (other than the actions of the Spanish police). Did they miss something?

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Donal Hanley
    Favourite Donal Hanley
    Report
    Dec 24th 2017, 12:28 PM

    @lavbeer:
    The headline is not just misleading. It is incorrect.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mick Jordan
    Favourite Mick Jordan
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 1:51 PM

    Without a change to the Spanish Constitution, Catalonia could a popular vote of 100% for independence and legally it would mean nothing. It would be like Cork voting unanimously to repeal the 8th amendment. Without a referenda the vote would not be legal. As in Spain any Constitutional changes require a national referendum.

    60
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Seán Ó Briain
    Favourite Seán Ó Briain
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 2:54 PM

    @Mick Jordan: Cork isn’t an autonomous region with its own parliament, language and culture. There is a precedent set for nationhood. Catalonia meets all of them.

    So your comparison to Cork is not remotely relevant.

    68
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Thomas Harrington
    Favourite Thomas Harrington
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 3:03 PM

    @Seán Ó Briain: says you! Totally has its own language does Cork

    24
    See 6 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mick Jordan
    Favourite Mick Jordan
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 3:11 PM

    @Seán Ó Briain: Cork has a County Council which is elected, it can pass local by-laws, can raise finances through rates etc so it is very relevant as it is nothing more than a smaller version of the Catalan Parliament,. Catalonia’s Parliament is subservient to the National Parliament in Madrid as are all the other regional governments in Spain. Catalonia agreed to and signed up to the Spanish Constitution and is now legally obliged to abide by that Constitution.

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Seán Ó Briain
    Favourite Seán Ó Briain
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 3:46 PM

    @Mick Jordan: Cork County Council is not comparable to the levels of autonomy that the Catalan parliament had. Nor is Cork as an area comparable for a claim of statehood that Catalonia has.

    Scotland signed up the the union (albeit on questionable circumstances), and were still afforded a vote on independence. The UK had the courage to allow them one in the spirit of democracy. Spain doesn’t have similar levels of faith in its union.

    If the majority of the people in Catalonia aspire for independence, that desire should be acknowledge by the Spanish government.

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute lavbeer
    Favourite lavbeer
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 4:20 PM

    @Seán Ó Briain: Catalonia signed up to this constitution only 40 years ago. And the result clearly shows there isn’t an overall desire to break off. Gunther and his ilk need to step back and start convincing their own people and get a 60-65 which would give them a platform. The 90% “referendum”‘was shown as a farce – endorsed by the SF people on the ground also.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mick Jordan
    Favourite Mick Jordan
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 4:33 PM

    @Seán Ó Briain: What claim of Statehood does Catalonia have. It was never a nation in its own right. It was previously an integral part of the Kingdom of Aragon, prior to that part of the Frankish kingdom of Charlemagne and before that a part of a Roman Frontier Provence. And now is an integral part of the Spanish State. In 1975 Catalans agreed to and signed up to all the terms and conditions of the Spanish Constitution. And one of those conditions was that the Spanish State as it currently is, is indivisible. And now that some Catalans wish to change that, they must seek a change in the Spanish Constitution (that they are a signatory to) to legally allow cessation.

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Seán Ó Briain
    Favourite Seán Ó Briain
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 4:49 PM

    @Mick Jordan: ” What claim of Statehood does Catalonia have.”

    What claim does any arbitrary piece of land and people have to statehood? Catalonia has its own language, its own parliament, its own culture – and the wish for the majority of the people living there to be independent.

    Borders are dynamic. They change over time. At present, the people within the recognised borders of the region of Catalonia wish to be independent. That’s a pretty valid claim. And if Spain actually had the courage to allow them a referendum without using political violence to crack down on them – we would be able to answer that question once and for all.

    This whole argument is going over your head. It’s a waste of time and energy to repeat it ad nauseum with you.

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mick Jordan
    Favourite Mick Jordan
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 5:05 PM

    @Seán Ó Briain: It has its own Parliament because the Nation of Spain permits it to have it just as the Dail here permits County and City Councils. But they, as with the Catalonian Parliament are only there at the sufferance of the National Parliment. And the results of the vote are also clear 51.5% of the Popular vote was for Spanish Unity with the Independence Vote receiving 48.5%.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute @mdmak33
    Favourite @mdmak33
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 2:20 PM

    Independence vote has been justified,but like brexit,the EU elites will do their best to block it.

    32
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute lavbeer
    Favourite lavbeer
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 2:28 PM

    @@mdmak33: justified by getting less than 50% ? How do you make that out?

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Thomas Harrington
    Favourite Thomas Harrington
    Report
    Dec 23rd 2017, 8:35 AM

    @lavbeer: to be fair the main leaders of the Independence Party are locked up or in exile and the Spanish govt shut down pro independence newspapers and websites / so the result is an amazing one / viva Cataluyna!

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fiona deFreyne
    Favourite Fiona deFreyne
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 2:04 PM

    This referendum result may now enable sensible negotiations to commence.

    Any attempted secession lacks legitimacy. There is now good reason for each side to engage meaningfully with the other, mediated by a third party broker.

    There are degrees of autonomy. There is plenty of scope for a solution.

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mick Jordan
    Favourite Mick Jordan
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 2:20 PM

    @Fiona deFreyne: Even if the Central Government wanted to allow Catalonian Independence, it is not legally in their power to grant it. It is a Constitutional issue. And that requires a national referendum to alter the part that states “All of Spain is indivisible”, to allow regions to ceceed. So Catalonian Independence is a pipe dream unless the Constitution is changed.

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pat Cbar
    Favourite Pat Cbar
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 7:11 PM

    @Mick Jordan: by that reckoning we should still be part of the UK.

    6
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mick Jordan
    Favourite Mick Jordan
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 8:25 PM

    @Pat Cbar: How do you make that out? We, Scotland, or Wales never agreed to or signed up to a UK constitution declaring that the UK is or was indivisible. Hence the Scottish Independence Referndum. When Ireland was part of the UK it was only so by a Parlimentry Act (Enacted by Henry VIII an English King) in which we Irish had no hand or act in. Catalonia on the other hand was an original part of the Kingdom of Aragon that United with the Kingdom of Castille to form what we now know as modern Spain. And after the death of Franco when a new constitution was being written with the input from every region of Spain, Catalonia agreed with and signed up to that new Consitution. Now that 48.5% of the Catalonian population desire independence does not negate the Constitution they signed.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute lavbeer
    Favourite lavbeer
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 1:54 PM

    Did Puigdemont or Junqueras run in this election? 70 out of 135 maybe 68 if they can’t show – still a majority barely. The case for independence wasn’t confirmed despite actions of the police and Madrid government plus a high turnout. breathing space is needed. Maybe it’s time for reconciliation of some sort?

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute lavbeer
    Favourite lavbeer
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 4:49 PM

    @lavbeer: of anyone know?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Anthony Byrne
    Favourite Anthony Byrne
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 2:00 PM

    This can only end badly.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stephen Maher
    Favourite Stephen Maher
    Report
    Dec 22nd 2017, 1:49 PM

    Separatists?

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cian Omahony Snr
    Favourite Cian Omahony Snr
    Report
    Dec 23rd 2017, 2:24 AM

    how can say this without being attacked..as a sports fan i love Barca..and i am trying to understand the whole situation from both sides ..but the leader says i demand the UN. Maybe i am totally wrong ,why not say ” I ask”does it alway have to be agressive speak…there is so much agression in the world..I am gettiing old and still naive to think that we can have a beautiful world ..maybe we can

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds