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Post Info TOPIC: Muslim man hailed for life-saving courage during Paris siege
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Muslim man hailed for life-saving courage during Paris siege
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Muslim man hailed for life-saving courage during Paris siege

By RAPHAEL SATTER 23 hours ago

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PARIS (AP) — At a kosher supermarket in Paris, a quick-thinking Muslim employee hides several Jewish shoppers in the basement before sneaking out to brief police on the hostage-taker upstairs. In the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, a poker-faced businessman fools a pair of gunmen into believing they're alone in the building before being allowed to leave unharmed.

In the days after the bloody end of twin French hostage crises Friday, stories of life-saving courage are beginning to filter out. One of the most striking is the story of Lassana Bathily, a young immigrant from Mali who literally provided police with the key to ending the hostage crisis at the supermarket.

Bathily was in the store's underground stockroom when gunman Amedy Coulibaly burst in upstairs, according to accounts given to French media and to a friend of Bathily's who spoke to The Associated Press. Bathily turned off the stockroom's freezer and hid a group of frightened shoppers inside before sneaking out through a fire escape to speak to police. Initially confused for the attacker, he was forced to the ground and handcuffed.

Once police realized their mistake, he provided them with the key they needed to open the supermarket's metal blinds and mount their assault.

"The guy was so courageous," said Mohammed Amine, a 33-year-old friend and former coworker of Bathily's who spoke to him about the assault on Saturday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Bathily during a visit to a Paris synagogue Sunday night.

"II want to express my appreciation to the Mali citizen who helped save seven Jews," Netanyahu said to thunderous applause.

Witnesses and authorities have corroborated Bathily's account.

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FILE - This is a Friday Jan. 9, 2015 file photo of police officers as they storm the kosher market w …

A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk on the record, explained that the key Bathily gave police allowed them to storm the supermarket without having to punch their way through the shutters.

About 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the northeast, another hostage's cool head helped keep a bad day from getting worse. Businessman Michel Catalano was waiting on a supplier at his office in Dammartin-en-Goele when he saw brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi approaching with Kalashnikov rifles. As his colleague, a 26-year-old he identified only as Lilian, ran to hide, he distracted the gunmen. He offered them coffee and - after a brief exchange of fire with authorities outside - bandaged one of the brother's necks.

"I stayed an hour with them," Catalano told AP. "I was never scared, because I had only one idea in my head: 'They should not go to the end (of the hallway) to see Lilian, that's all.' That's what kept me calm."

Eventually, Catalano was released by the hostage-takers as police swapped text messages with Lilian inside. Just before dusk, the brothers ran outside, guns blazing. They died in a hail of return fire.

Back at the kosher supermarket, police used Bathily's key to mount their assault, killing Coulibaly and freeing 15 hostages.

Amid the bravery, there was also tragedy.

Police found four hostages dead inside the supermarket, apparently shot by Coulibaly when he entered the store.

Among them was Yohan Cohen, a 22-year-old who Amine said was "someone amazing, friendly, who likes (and) who respects people."

"I'm Muslim and he's Jewish," said Amine, an immigrant from Morocco. "But there's such respect between us. We're like brothers.

"They took my best friend."

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Chris van den Hond in Dammartin-en-Goele contributed to this report.

 

 



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Frozen Sucks!

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I like this story, but of course, it was reached for because of the global backlash against Muslims. More Muslims need to come out and decry the terrorist attacks that are happening everywhere. There are too few of them doing that in comparison to the attacks.

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Individual acts of heroism by Muslims is just as important as any other act of heroism. These hero's can be used as examples of what a true Muslim should be.
A good counterpoint against the jihadists, IMHO.

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And then you get Imam's saying that it is anti-islamic to build snowmen, with people supporting this belief because snowmen can cause lustful hearts.

Reuters

(Reuters) - A prominent Saudi Arabian cleric has whipped up controversy by issuing a religious ruling forbidding the building of snowmen, described them as anti-Islamic.

Asked on a religious website if it was permissible for fathers to build snowmen for their children after a snowstorm in the country's north, Sheikh Mohammed Saleh al-Munajjid replied: "It is not permitted to make a statue out of snow, even by way of play and fun." 

Quoting from Muslim scholars, Sheikh Munajjid argued that to build a snowman was to create an image of a human being, an action considered sinful under the kingdom's strict interpretation of Sunni Islam. 

 

"God has given people space to make whatever they want which does not have a soul, including trees, ships, fruits, buildings and so on," he wrote in his ruling.

That provoked swift responses from Twitter users writing in Arabic and identifying themselves with Arab names.

"They are afraid for their faith of everything ... sick minds," one Twitter user wrote.

Another posted a photo of a man in formal Arab garb holding the arm of a "snow bride" wearing a bra and lipstick. "The reason for the ban is fear of sedition," he wrote.

A third said the country was plagued by two types of people:

"A people looking for a fatwa (religious ruling) for everything in their lives, and a cleric who wants to interfere in everything in the lives of others through a fatwa," the user wrote.

Sheikh Munajjid had some supporters, however. "It (building snowmen) is imitating the infidels, it promotes lustiness and eroticism," one wrote. 

"May God preserve the scholars, for they enjoy sharp vision and recognize matters that even Satan does not think about."

 

Snow has covered upland areas of Tabuk province near Saudi Arabia's border with Jordan for the third consecutive year as cold weather swept across the Middle East.



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Sunni Muslims are the extremists. Shiite Muslims are the peaceful branch.
I suspect the two hero's are Shiite.

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