Since the terrorist attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the countrys Muslim community, despite universally and repeatedly condemning the attack, has come under a wave of misguided reprisal attacks. The attacks are being mapped by a respected British anti-Islamophobia group, Tell MAMA UK (MAMA stands for measuring anti-Muslim attacks). This map details the incidents since they began, mere hours after the Charlie Hebdo attack: According to reports by AFP and others, the attacks have included: • Three training grenades thrown at a mosque in Le Man; a bullet hole was also found in one of the mosque windows • A bomb blast at a restaurant adjacent to and associated with a mosque in Villefranche-sur-Saone • Gunshots fired at a mosque in Port-la-Nouvelle • A boars head and entrails were left outside an Islamic prayer center in Corsica with a note: Next time it will be one of your heads. The attacks have been relatively small-scale, especially compared to the Charlie Hebdo massacre and subsequent violence committed by its apparent culprits. The only serious harm so far came from a gang assaulting a 17-year-old of North African descent. But these incidents point to a long-worsening trend of hostility in France toward the countrys Muslim minority, which makes up an estimated eight to 10 percent of the population, and a sense among French Muslims that they are not welcome. The apparent logic of the mosque attacks badly misunderstands the initial Charlie Hebdo attack: if it was carried out by al-Qaeda-linked extremists, as early reports suggest, then this is a group that has made fellow Muslims its primary victims. Further, such attacks play directly into al-Qaedas own logic and agenda, treating the act of few fringe extremists as representative of the non-extremist whole, and fomenting the idea of existential conflict between non-Muslims and Muslims where none actually exists. #Conservatives #Fundamentalism #Terrorism
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 00:25:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015