Today, we are all Charlie Hebdo. Anyone, anywhere, who expresses their opinions in the public square was attacked today when Muslim militants burst into the Paris offices of a venerable satirical magazine and gunned down the editor, three cartoonists, and injured many others.
Others will pick up the work of the fallen.
Last I read, it looked like 12 killed and five critically wounded (so the death toll could increase before all is said and done). Hopefully the assailants are caught and brought to justice.
All were called out by name, a well planned and executed attack. Reminds me of the days of the Algerian metro terror attacks by the Armed Islamic Group (GIA).
See my new diary – Paris Attack: ‘Martyrs of Liberty’.
lesson in not being able to please anyone.
According to NPR, the weapons used were AK-47’s and France bans both full automatic and semi-automatic weapons. AFAIK, France does not manufacture AK-47’s (although many countries do). So they were smuggled in. This is why I contend that gun bans are not the answer to gun crime. We need to identify and control people who want to kill other people with guns.
This is a bit different than gun crime. Truly dedicated fuckers are going to get through but the average moron or little kid will find these barriers to entry to much trouble to overcome.
You’re right, a few more good guys with guns in the building and no one would have been killed.
Not my point, Jim. I’m not arguing for more guns. I’m arguing for focusing on the criminal because he can always get a gun, even in France.
I’m not for banning guns at all, either.
That said, reasonable restrictions and regulations aren’t the same as ObamaForAmerica fascists coming door to door to take away your guns while waving a burning copy of the Second Amendment in your face, ya know?
I am, well…hand guns, and a good chunk of other guns. Melt them down.
Take them from the pigs, too.
Never going to happen. Ever.
Way too many guns, and people would hide them if there was ever a law passed requiring it.
It’s why a competent Democratic party would repeat over and over that they aren’t taking away anyone’s guns, but that there should be a few regulations in place to make sure the nuts don’t get them as easy as they get them now.
I realize that Republicans and fascist-enablers wouldn’t care, but it’s not said like that outright, over and over and over again.
Democrats have a big time messaging problem. They let the Republicans set the narrative, and like the “good cop”, they just come in and deny, which means they’ve already lost.
I’m aware. Don’t care. Someone’s gotta take this side of the debate, I’m happy to oblige.
You do know a cop was among their victims, right?
A somewhat obvious lesson from this is that if you intend to mock that which others hold sacred, and those others have been known to react violently to being mocked, then you might want to hire an armed guard or two, or two dozen.
Apparently there was an armed guard. He was shot as well.
Underestimated the resolve of their enemies…
○ CharlueHebdo satirical magazine
I guess that justifies killing the cartoonist at dailyKos as well.
Not justifying anything, just saying that if you choose to piss on an electric fence then don’t be surprised by the shock that comes your way.
The Muslims should remember that violence begets violence.
I believe that those who use violence (i.e. not all Muslims or even a majority of Muslims) are aware of that and prepared for that – it’s a fight that they welcome.
Could be, Oscar.
These easily offended Muslims aren’t even fundamentalists because the Koran is silent on depictions of Mohammed. Not officially banned by the Shia sect until 400-500 years ago. That is a few hundred years earlier than when the Catholic Church got around to banning abortion because the Bible that had been knocking around for centuries was silent on that issue. And so-called US fundamentalist Protestants didn’t get around to that one for another century.
The Abrahamic religions sought to eliminate idol worship or idolatry that had been prevalent in earlier religions. Protestants took that one up as Catholicism blurred the line on that prohibition. (Some rejecting the cross and crucifix as well, but those bans seem to have fallen by the wayside.)
Some people need to develop a sense of humor — a quality that is highly developed in Muslims I’ve known.
They aren’t “easily offended muslims”. They’re fundamentalists who are trying to provoke a reaction in Europe, and this was a convenient target.
The goal here is to get Europe to declare war on its own muslims. With the rise of neo-fascist parties in France and Germany, the timing is not a coincidence. This will provide a lot of fodder for those movements at a critical time in their growth.
The worse off muslims in Europe are, the easier they will be to recruit for more extremist activities. There is no end game, as they’re in this for the ride.
Two things:
The French are far from cowardly. That jingoists in the US give them shit as being cowardly is just one more case of projection.
*Now = Not
Please add an Edit button!
Much needed antidote from Charlie Death in Paris.
If the Fox folks had ever seen Charlie Hebdo, they would have been calling for it to be banned. But now — well, it’s the application of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
This is not in fact the worst case of terrorism since London 2005. There is Oslo 2011 in which 77 people were killed by one terrorist assailant.
The most recent news of the investigation is that three men inspired by by an old issue of Al Quaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s magazine Inspire’s diatribe against Charlie Hebdo carried out the attack. The suspects, age 34, 32, and 18 reported were radicalized by reports in 2004 of Abu Ghraib. So Dick Cheney is the gift that keeps on giving. The report also says the 18-year-old is in custody.
Two things to consider are (1) the conditions in 2015 that makes satirization of Islam a valid choice of topics and (2) the conditions that make the terrorist attack more likely. What exactly happened to the Enlightenment, that reaction to religious war that had some of its most brilliant adherents in France? How is it that we seem to have come full circle?
I’m inclined to agree with cruzy that this act involved the political calculation that the French government would respond (as the UK and Australian government have begun to legislate) in a way that destroys democracy in France and begins suppression French Muslims and Muslim immigrants. That further disrupts a an economically and politically disrupted Europe.
At this point, the most constructive thing the United States could do for the world would be to join the International Criminal Court and refer the investigation of US torture in Guantanamo, black sites, and Abu Ghraib to ICC investigators, letting them indict US officials up to and including the President of the United States. And reverse course on opposition to Palestinian statehood, reining in funding for Israel’s continued displacment of Palestinians into the apartheid state.
That US politics are so screwed up that this action of honor is not possible is sad both for US leadership (the leadership it claims to seek) and for walking back from endless war and terror attacks.
The US is overdue for a stunning act of peace in the Middle East. And Europe’s danger from Muslim terrorism increases with the rise of the nationalist right, which is a direct consequence of six years of the austerity imposed by the European elites.
Satire is dangerous within vicious societies with inflated ideas of what constitutes lese majeste.
Also, has anyone actually looked into what Charlie Hebdo actually published? For a supposedly satirical paper, they sure published their fair share of racist stuff. They actually called the Nigerian women abducted by Boko Harum “welfare queens.” And there was more.
Disgusting but does not justify murder. In fact, murder based on views, no matter how disgusting, is an assault on a free society. These Muslims would bring us all back to the Middle Ages. And so would the RWNJ churches. Religion is an abomination.
Clueless bigoted “satirists” who think they are pushing the limits of political correctness don’t deserve execution. They deserve satirists who puncture the bubble of counter-cultural self-importance. They are not in fact counter-cultural but conservative of the culture of privilege. In what sense at base is that satirical?
But that job is better suited to another cartoonist than to a gun-toter.
But to your point. Yes, we better be very clear that the “satirist” Danish cartoonist who inspired and earlier protest, these cartoonists are fundamentally propagandists for National Front politicians. They are not anti-Muslim. They are anti-non-European.
And their terrorism drove an reporting of white terrorism of the NAACP in Colorado Springs out of the media.
They also skewer the Christian religious and the continued unaccountable child sexual abuse of Catholic clergy. Some of their newfound Islamophobic friends in the US might find that work appalling as well.
Maybe we should look cartoonist by cartoonist instead of conflating all of their work.
What is clear is that even iconoclasm can become idolatrous, as it has with these terrorists and the Taliban who dynamited the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan.
Time to raise the question of what exactly is religion all about and why do people cling to it so tightly? To the point of killing other people, which clearly is contrary to the self-stated intent of those religious texts. And atheist dismissal is not a sufficient answer to this question.
This topic has recently been discussed quite vehemently @TikunOlam … strict interpretation of scriptures whether it be the Torah, Bible or Quran, all permit the slaughter of persons seen as a threat to their Jehova, God or Allah (or prophet pbuh). Need to call for a complete separation of church and state; however across the globe, mankind is moving in the other direction. With fundamentalism comes inequality in rights of women, authoritarianism, misuse of power, abuse, torture and submission. See US, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Sharia states like Pakistan, Malaysia, Nigeria (North) and Indonesia.
○ Jewish Home MK Candidate Directs Settler Rabbi Group Which Adovcated Genocide
Rabbi Avichai Baron’s `Ma’ayney Ha’Yeshua’ newsletter advocates “death camps” for “Amalekites” (i.e. Palestinians). Calling out heretics to be slaughtered is so medieval, get rid of those ideals, goals and teachings. Problem is, we have freedom of religion and speech. We are free to behave irresponsibly ’till death do us part.
Very similar in the motivation to murder Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam in 2005. Van Gogh was broadly satirical and more than once also anti-semitic. His killer was a lone-wolf radicalised Muslim who acted very much on his own and wished for a martyr’s death at the hands of Amsterdan police. Contrary to US police sharpshooters, the local police don’t shoot to kill even if the suspects has a gun. [Could be lack of training, of course – LOL]
The misfortune for Theo van Gogh is that he joined Islamophobes to send out a message in his film Submission which got him much publicity. He partnered with Hirsi Ali who did receive police protection due to death threats. The extremists always look for the soft targets, Charlie Hebdo was not defended well in his office. Adequate security and a safe room who have made quite a difference. The shooters weren’t professional at SAS level, perhaps have been to Syria for training in jihad combat. I see no link to AQAP as one shouted leaving the scene.
New French law represses freedom of speech, criticism of Israel and “anti-semitism” will be prosecuted. Due to the success of Marie LePen, both Sarkozy and Hollande have leaned toward the extreme far-right on immigration issues. Hypocrisy reigns in Europe.
Info about Kouachi brothers in Paris, previous arrest and teachings by Farid Benyettou, a janitor-turned-street preacher.
○ Alleged Killers, the Kouachi Brothers
○ Paris Terrorist was Radicalized by Bush’s Iraq War, Abu Ghraib Torture | Juan Cole’s Informed Comment |
See my diary – Paris Attack: ‘Martyrs of Liberty’.
How society reacts on the terror attack in Paris will tell much over the cohesion in Europe. I’ve already heard reports from journalists
the call for re-introducing the death sentence by guillotine. The Enlightenment in reverse : Constraint – Inequality – Oligarchy.
Enlightenment and Human Rights for Women too?
America In Distress: "Who is not with us, is against us." [G.W. Bush in WOT]
European suggestion to counteract Islamic Jihad
Let’s start by lifting the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679!
Still horrifying to think how that goodwill in solidarity was squandered by the Cheney admin’s rush to the War Crime of invading Iraq on false pretenses (how is it possible so few seem to remember this, to the extent of just electing a GOP Congressional majority???).
As Cheney’s case for war crumbled in the face of facts well before the launch of the War Crime, these assholes even descended to the vile, slanderous silliness of renaming French fries “freedom fries” in Congress’ cafeteria and reviling the French as “cheese-eating surrender monkeys”, even as the NYPost labeled France and Germany “Axis of Weasel” on its cover (events proved France and Germany right, of course, another inescapable conclusion disappeared down the Memory Hole of stupid mainstream American discourse; thanks corporate media!).