Je suis moi
I'm against the fanaticism of the Kouachi Brothers and the vileness of Charlie Hebdo. No one has the right to take the life of other human beings for a word they wrote or a cartoon they drew, or to cause them bodily harm. Similarly, free press isn’t an open license to ridicule someone else’s beliefs, culture and sanctity.
This tragic event is a dirty reminder of the bigotry and atrocities being committed in the names of freedom of speech and religion. Before we identify ourselves with one wicked side or another, let us not forget the thousands of innocent people dying every day, everywhere in the world, of hunger and cold and disease and war and torture. Let us identify with them instead, or at least with our true selves.
Comments
By bringing religion down and imposing a secular God, by the name of Free Speech, in its place, democracy turns into a similar tyranny.
In this world of many races, creeds, religions, and cultures, a basic form of respect should exist. Call it diplomacy, courtesy, or common sense, but it's nothing more than simple human decency. We don't walk around insulting people only because we worship our freedom.
I'm glad the attackers received their just end but this doesn't even put a dent on the sad state of the world today.
You're absolutely right. As a blogger, I'm a proponent of individual freedom and free expression but there's a self imposed line that no one should cross. Cultural, sexual, and racial insults are off limit. These are things we're born with, for better or worse, and should always remain off limit.
While we may be appalled by the crime committed, let's not forget that it is a reaction. This doesn't justify it, nothing does, but there is no justification for any art form that seeks laughter through insults either.
No one is above criticism! Okay, I accept that. But there's a difference between constructive criticism and an utterly senseless insult.
Criticizing an article you wrote is fair game but making fun of your great grandmother is stupid!
What would I, you or the readers gain from such nonsense, except perhaps the cheap laughter of a few idiots who might find it funny.
Should you kill me if I insult your great grandmother? Certainly not, but you might be a moron too.
This is how I see things. I'm saddened because innocent people are dying in the thousands here and elsewhere and nobody cares or grieves. I know you do, but I'm talking about selective humanists whose activism is hashtag driven.
Well said!
You both know that I'm a product of 2 cultures, and accordingly might seem a little off to (some) people here and there. Not to take anything away from your excellent analyses, I think I'm extra-sensitive to some behavioral nuisances of Middle Easterners and Westerners. I can see an Ahmad or a John with 2 pairs of eyes and from 2 different vantage points. Then, fortunately for me, I focus with a third pair of eyes that is, I like to convince myself, as neutral as possible.
The perpetrators in this crime committed and act of terrorism by all definitions. But so did several western governments when they practiced clandestine torture, when they invaded Iraq for no valid reason and set that country a century backward in time and when they continue to bullshit their way through the Syrian crisis and, at best, count the dead. I only listed 3 relevant acts of state sponsored terrorism that most Middle Eastern people, including myself, wholeheartedly believe are not just about equal to the Charlie Hebdo crime but humongously more sinister as they affects millions of people rather than a dozen.
For Middle Eastern extremists, terrorism is a cheap weapon. For Western governments, state sponsored terrorism is foreign policy.
I'm just talking loudly here so you can both (and others) hear me. I'm in no way refuting your arguments, as I fully agree with them. I'm just voicing an opinion shared by millions of other people on this side of the world. The notion that Western blood is precious and "Eastern" blood is water is taken too matter of factly by, I dare say, the majority in the West. At least this is what I learned from not truly belonging to either side.
You're both wonderful people and I certainly do not mean either of you, but after spending the last 37 years of my life with one foot on each side of the ocean, this is the impression I made. Until universal justice and equality are the prevalent forms of behavior this act of terrorism will be repeated over and over again and the cultural schism that exists will either get wider or remain too broad to bridge.
Hoping and looking forward getting together again.