I wish every news outlet in the world would print the cartoons in living color. A collective *&@# you is in order. Sorry, JMO.
That video is scary stuff. I see also the other ugly extreme which gives rise to the likes of Hitler mentality with no tolerance at all. I think the solution will have to include moderate Islamics. They need to stand up and demand their religion back from the extremists.
Maybe everyone should post the cartoons on their social media page in protest.
The religion of peace strikes again.
That was my thought @albert69 when I read this story this morning.
Pessimistic fits the times. Either a generational conflict with an intent to win or the possibility of morning calls to prayers for our descendents.
Neither strike me as uplifting.
I couldn’t agree more! This attack, along with the recent ones in Canada and Australia, underline the need for freedom loving Western countries to double down on our resolve not to be cowed by Islamic religious zealots. This is a cancer, the spread of which we must fight to our last breath. How dare they?! How freakin’ dare they?! I’m virtually apoplectic with rage over this. It brings back the awful feelings I felt in the wake of the 911 attacks. As intolerant as they are of our right to freedom of expression, we need to be ten times as intolerant of the threats to that freedom from the likes these horrible cowards. They need to be made aware of the fact that they cannot defeat us, no matter what they do, no matter how many times they try to do it.
I’ve already changed my FB profile picture to such a cartoon. I say the the best answer is to flood the airwaves, so to speak, with the cartoons. Show them that they cannot and will not win.
From BBC:
“Meanwhile, the lawyer for Charlie Hebdo, Richard Malka, confirmed that next week’s edition of the magazine would go ahead on Wednesday and would have a print run of one million, instead of the normal 60,000 copies.”
Does anyone sell CH in the US?
(It is possible that media not posting the cartoons on the front pages has something to do with copyright issues. Sad).
No, CNN, NBC, the AP, NYT and others have stated that they are not showing them do to their offensive nature. It has nothing to do with copyright laws. It’s a weird news judgment issue.
A little insight into the media and the judgement issue regarding posting the cartoons (or other similar stuff):
Prior warning that this is going to be a very unpopular opinion.
I think that the killings were horrible and completely unjustified. However, I don’t think that the cartoons should be published as retaliation, because they aren’t just offensive to extremists (who, understandably, shouldn’t be considered when someone asks the question “is this offensive?”) but also to Muslims generally, many of whom would never dream of committing murder. I understand the line of thought behind publishing the cartoons everywhere. It’s to show that extremists aren’t going to take away freedom of speech and press.
But while no one should fear for their safety for posting something offensive, it doesn’t mean that someone should post something offensive. I would like to hope that people avoid saying or posting offensive things, because they care about hurting others’ feelings. Not because they are catering to crazy zealots.
This also serves as a polite reminder that many Muslims, such as myself, believe the shooting was wrong and believe that Islam strongly condemns such actions.
Most cartoons are offensive to someone, though. But, no news organization wants to be the next target which is another way of saying the terrorists win. But, I understand the decision, too.
As a practicing agnostic, I want to support what was said in post #30. Based on my admittedly rudimentary sense of the tenets of Islam, I believe that these cartoons were not simply offensive, but went well beyond the bounds of decency. Subject to correction, I believe that under Islamic law the publication of these cartoons was on par with burnIng the Koran, but I wonder how people on this list would be reacting if someone had taken out that nutjob who was talking about burning the Koran right before the attack on the embassy in Libya. Would they be saying that we should all go out and burn Korans? Somehow I doubt it But hey, he wasn’t a cool intellectual satirist, right?
Beyond that, this massive recirculation of the cartoons plays into the hands of the violent terrorists themselves. The core of their message to the Islamic world is that we in the West have no respect for them and their belief system. By making the conscious decision to widely recirculate the demeaning images of the prophet, we give credence to this message.
^^ that justification just seems wrong to me.
I have a problem with this whole subject.
How come that free speech entitles you to denigrate others to the point of hate speech?
And how come hate speech is so protected in France yet Germany is so afraid of hate speech that they don’t want to see a swastika unless it is in a museum with a special permit to show one? And saying “I don’t think the Holocaust happened” lands you in jail?
I mourn for those killed.
But I’m not going to die for a freaking cartoon or risk others’ lives for one. It is like getting pregnant and having an abortion to support a woman’s right to have an abortion. Or setting up an intellectually disabled person to kill someone and showing that they would be found not guilty, and even end up with a better situation in their life. The idea of free speech is abhorrent when it infringes upon others’ rights to such a degree.
And by the way, the “Je suis Ahmed” slogan is much more appropriate here:
He was a victim of both sides.
There is no such thing as absolute good and absolute evil, and if there were such things, the right to free speech would be wayyy far from an absolute good.
If we were all to self censor so as to not offend anyone, there would be no discussion of anything other than the weather.
When Muslim people move into Western countries they have to accept Western ideals.
Yeah, why bother moving to Rome if u are turned off by what the Romans do?
There was no need for the warning. Everyone is entitled to unpopular opinions. In turn, one can follow your argument and see what it intimates and implies. And one can disagree with its foundation and conclusions.
The basic problems is that “policy” you are advocating is not helping at all because it is akin to preaching in the desert. Why should we be worried to “offend” when our attempts to muzzle the offensive messengers have only led to more violence. Why should we worry about “offending” people who are currently massively led and misled by destructive and radical interpretations of --what I assume-- is your religious texts.
In the end, the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press is part of our culture. We --as in the Western civilized world-- cannot dream on imposing what should be printed in Teheran or Casablanca. Political cartoons, as well as religious caricaturing-- is part of our culture. And immigrants should accept this when making the decision to live in countries that happen to have different values.
The biggest problem with the censuring of the cartoons --as the cowardly reaction of the most press has shown-- has been to isolate the few who … were right in the first place. They did NOT target Muslims – the cartoonists derided everyone without restrictions. The Pope, the government, their own people, the provincialism of the French … nobody was immune. So, WHY should they have treated “your” people any differently? The only plausible answer was … the FEAR of reprisals and attacks on the press.
The answer --and the one that should have taken place a decade ago and supported by the US government in non-waffling terms-- should have been a firm and unified statement of support to the right of publishing the cartoons.
Our failure was to forego solidarity and to --unfortunately-- choose caving in to the radical voices that have no interest in peace. Let’s be clear … we are under attack by a world that wants to change us and impose a culture and a religion which we can accept but not necessarily adopt.
Let it be clear that the reprisals for the cartoons are just one among a long list of excuses to justify violence. If it was not this, it would be that. Did the cartoons’ publishing really made it worse than it has been? At best, it was a trivial matter. Only fanatical zealots will want to represent it differently. And that is what they are.
Nope. He was a victim of cruel murderers. They were close enough to recognize him and speak to him before executing him. They did not care if he was a Muslim or not. He did wear the colors of his adopted country and was in their way. They killed him, just as radicals have killed their brothers who preach integration and assimilation.
Well said ^^. xiggi
Just think of other things that may offend radical Muslims like a woman bearing her face or her ankle in public. If Westerners don’t hold the line on our values, I shudder to think what may be next.