Reply to terrorist attack in Paris

Forum Index » Political Discussion

Reply to "terrorist attack in Paris "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous]
I get your point, but I still just don't see why you think the "is the material offensive" question is important right now.  I don't think it is.  I think what's important right now is the criminal violence, terrorism, tragedy, and assault on free speech.  I think an analogy would be when there are murderous attacks on abortion clinics.  I'd be pretty pissed if the conversation was all about "well, what the abortion clinic people do is wrong, but that doesn't mean they should be killed for it".  I think the appropriate conversation at that point is "THIS IS WRONG."  Not, "This is wrong, but the victims really were offensive and bad."
Now, PLEASE don't accuse me of trying to limit YOUR free speech by saying that I think your comments are inappropriate.  I'm not by any means saying you shouldn't be allowed to have or state this opinion.   But I'm stating *my* opinion that I think you're off-base.[/quote]

I understand what you are saying. I'm also having a bit of trouble articulating exactly what I want to say. I am looking at this from kind of a wide lens. Assuming that the killers in Paris were Muslim extremists which seems likely based on what we know, their goal was not only to intimidate their critics, but to drive a wider wedge between the West and Muslims. These people aren't stupid. There are plenty of previous examples that demonstrate the West would rally to the side of the magazine. Just look at what happened to "The Interview". People couldn't wait to go see the movie. So, knowing that driving a wedge between the West and Islam is a goal of the killers (again, assuming they are who we think they are), I don't want to contribute to their goal. To the contrary, I would like to do everything within my means to prevent them from accomplishing their goal.

In the Muslim world, people will be hearing the world-wide condemnations of the attack -- with which most of them will agree -- and the full-throated announcements of support for Charlie Hebdo. There is a danger that this second part will be interpreted as support for what many will consider anti-Muslim cartoons. Combine that with plenty of outright anti-Muslim rhetoric coming from the West and there is a real danger that the killers' goal will be furthered as Muslims are further alienated from the West. I think it would be wise to try to eliminate misunderstanding and stress that support for freedom of the press does not mean support for what the press is publishing. That might be a challenge in many Muslim countries in which nothing gets published unless it is supported by the government, but it's still worth trying.

According to this article:

http://qz.com/322550/charlie-hebdo-has-had-more-legal-run-ins-with-christians-than-with-muslims/

Charlie Hebdo had been sued 13 times by Catholic organizations. So, clearly, they were equal opportunity offenders. Beyond the geo-political considerations, it probably is good sense for a lot of people to distinguish between the right to publish -- which we support -- and the content -- with which we might disagree. 
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics