In case you missed it, a Muslim was the hero of the Paris grocery store siege

[Ken Burch]

Last edited Sun Jan 11, 2015, 04:12 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/10/1356847/-In-case-you-missed-it-a-Muslim-man-was-the-hero-of-the-Paris-grocery-store-siege

The next time someone blames all Muslims for the actions of terrorists, please point them to this:
Lassana Bathily, a Muslim employee at Paris Kosher grocery store Hyper Cacher, saved several people by hiding them in a walk-in freezer when a gunman laid siege to his workplace on Friday.
Amedy Coulibaly burst into the market and opened fire, killing 4 people. He took several shoppers hostage and threatened to kill them if police stormed the printing shop where Cherif and Said Kouachi, who killed 12 people in an attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo earlier in the week, were holed up in a village to the north.

Bathily, identified by French media as a "Malian Muslim," helped several customers to safety as the chaos unfolded. "I went down to the freezer, I opened the door, there were several people who went in with me. I turned off the light and the freezer," Bathily, 24, told French network BFMTV. "I brought them inside and I told them to stay calm here, I'm going to go out. When they got out, they thanked me."

[liberal_at_heart]

1. K&R

[Blue_Tires]

2. ttt

[calimary]

3. Kick!

Welcome news. We all need some.

[greyl]

4. Why call attention to the fact that the hero was a man?

Gender had as much to with the heroism as religion did, i.e., most very likely, absolutely nothing.

To me, the OP article's defense of religion comes off as quite desperate whacking at straw demons.

[Ken Burch]

6. I was just using the original headline of the link story.

There was no intent on my part to make the hero's gender an issue at all. Have now edited the headline to remove the gender reference.

[greyl]

9. I understand, I wasn't targeting you.

The article's actual headline is "In case you missed it, a Muslim man was the hero of the Paris grocery store siege".

(bolding mine)

[Ken Burch]

11. You raise a good question.

Possibly, it was because most of the jihadis and ISIS types are young men.

So the reference to him being a "Muslim man" may have been a challenge to the "profiling" mindset.

[greyl]

12. I can't fault people for acting defensive when they're feeling attacked.

Maybe the "man" word was only some cultural language litter, a habitual word included with no increase in meaningfulness. Know what I mean, man? The Kos author linked to in the OP is in Maryland, USA and has a rather American sounding name, fwiw.

The article they link to from their Kos article is titled "Lassana Bathily, Muslim Employee At Kosher Market, Saved Several People During Paris Hostage Situation".

(bolding mine)

Lassana Bathily

[Electric Monk]

5. For those wondering why a Muslim might be working in a Kosher grocery store...

Kosher is pretty much a sub-set of Halal, according to wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Islamic_and_Jewish_dietary_laws so a Muslim would find it convenient working and shopping there too.

[Ken Burch]

7. Heard that. n/t.

[Electric Monk]

8. They really do have a lot in common. nt

[Ken Burch]

10. Probably shared bloodlines, if you go back far enough.

But sometimes, fights between closely related groups are bloodier and more intractable than fights between groups with little in common.

[JonLP24]

14. They are more closer than they're apart

I mean based on a general view the Quran endorses the Bible & Old Testament with an additional endorsement for the Book of Moses. Says favorable things for the followers but when you get into holy book scripture you can have arguments with yourself.

[JonLP24]

13. I hope we don't have to resort to posting 'pit bull stories'

to counter broad generalizations.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/animal-rights/hero-dog-dials-911-cell-phone-while-veteran-owner-has-seizure-video

[m-lekktor]

16. this is about the 4th time i have seen this on here, so yes it is.

you can only mention their religion if a good deed is done, if it is bad then people are gonna get pissy about it if you mention it.

[JonLP24]

17. The debate strikes me as oversimplified

in my mind I think there is a simple solution that everyone can agree on except bigots who would prefer to generalize. I can't think of liberal that likes Saudi Arabia 'House of Saud'. If people want to talk about Saudi influence into the Muslim world by supporting Wahabbism such as Osama Bin Laden & The Taliban I think we would get a lot further.

Other than that I'm not sure how Islam is the problem.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

15. Good for him N.T.

[RandiFan1290]

18. Brave MAN!

Good for HIM!

[TorchTheWitch]

19. why does this stuff need to be said here?

How is it that after this particular attack that suddenly anyone might be confused about whether or not all Muslims are extremist terrorists?

That's ultra nutball conservative bullshit and always has been. There's no one here with the IQ of the average potato.

This is just insulting, and worse it encourages belief that it's somehow an amazing thing that a Muslim would be in a kosher grocery and *gasp* actually help people escape slaughtering psychos.

The only response to anyone blaming all Muslims for the murderous actions of three despicable terrorists is to find out what psych ward they escaped from and what size straight jacket they wear.