Geopolitical warfare. Not free speech, not Islamophobia. Geopolitical warfare. Is everyone unaware that France is deeply engaged in active combat with militant groups who are striving to control and represent the muslim world and spearhead its resistance against Western powers? Perhaps we ought to focus our energies on figuring out how better to manage, if at all, our own ongoing military engagements on that front. Because ouch, they hit us right in the Paris and that is the long and short of it. Let us grieve our casualties of war. Saying that Islamists attacked Charlie Hebdo because they hate free speech is like Americans after 9/11 saying they hate us for our freedoms. Bringing Islamophobia within France into the current conversation is highly inappropriate, at a time when muslims who do suffer Islamophobia are busy distancing themselves from this act. Seizing the opportunity to discuss the hardships they face is counter productive to their concerted distancing efforts. It is also inappropriate to let heinous acts of violence succeed at bringing up discussions of societal grievances against the claimed perpetrators of those acts (especially when the victims of those grievances are refusing to be represented by these perpetrators). This is not the time. If you are busy discussing what free speech should and shouldnt be, you too, are taking this tragedy as an opportunity to discuss your pet cause. It is simply not the case that oppressed / oversensitive / radicalized / inherently evil / sympathetic / representative / not representative muslims are so offended by these noble / rude / fair / brave / oppressive cartoons that they murdered the producers. It is the case that trained enemy combattants effectively struck a symbolic target in Paris from their publicly known hit list. When were done wanking over these played out debates about whether cheap low brow satire is pathetic or heroic and whether Islam is fair game for mockery while hijab is in or out, we might want to get around to taking an interest in the ongoing wars which result in death and terror in our midst.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 05:45:55 +0000
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