Je ne suis pas Charlie - I am not Charlie
Politics / Propaganda Jan 10, 2015 - 02:16 AM GMTThe terrorist attack on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that left 12 dead Wednesday in an apparently well organised assault by subsequently identified two French born brothers of Algerian decent, an attack that they said was conducted in the name of Islam as an act of vengeance against a series of cartoons depicting Islam published by the French magazine over a number of years which prompted world wide condemnation that manifested itself in the slogan 'Je Suis Charlie' , 'I am Charlie'.
However, unlike most I wanted to actually take look at these cartoons that prompted such murderous action before I too proclaimed myself as ''Je Suis Charlie". Now, I am no friend of religion that I see as being ancient superstitions that for mankind to survive needs to grow out of before modern technology delivers the end of the world prophecies that the adherents of virtually all major faiths require so that they may ascend into paradise for eternity. However, a lot of the Charlie Hebdo material I found appears to be designed to cause maximum offense, it's not just ridiculing Islam but wanted to specifically hurt muslims to the maximum extent possible. Maximum Offense. In fact it is RACIST!
This is not Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Speech or Liberte, this is something else. It would be interesting to see what hand the French State and Intelligence agencies have played in what clearly resembles the extreme end of a propaganda war which given the material is literally along the lines of that which Goebbels could have come out with against the Jews of the 1930's. Some of it is literally that bad! It's not funny, if I as a non subscriber to the 'Man in the Sky' cults find a lot of the material offensive than how do the vast majority of muslim adherents find it. Let alone the psychologically corrupted by fundamentalist ideologies to the extent of committing murder who in all probability were just looking for any excuse to commit cold blooded mass murder.
I would go as far as saying that such material is the mirror image of Islamic fundamentalists hate speeches of the Mad Mullahs out there. For it amounts to extremist material, what is the purpose of setting out to cause maximum offense to a segment of the population, and I don't mean just insulting muslims, or causing limited offense with a comedic aspect but to deliberately setting out to cause MAXIMUM OFFENSE. Such as protraying the Boko Haram kidnapped Nigerian School girls as pregnant sex slaves all shouting "Don't touch our benefit payments!" (link). What's worse is that Charlie Hebdo was picking on the worst off of the French population, those right at the very bottom that populate the Paris slums.
A simple test to reveal the racist nature of much of this material is to replace the muslim persons in the cartoons with Jewish persons and then see how far the French slogans of Freedom of Expression and Speech go, for it is an illusion because this is not freedom of expression this is racist hate speech propaganda.
Therefore whilst I am outraged at the terrorist attack conducted by crazy lunatics who have no any justification whatsoever, and I am glad to see that their murderous campaign has been brought to swift end, however I Cannot be Charlie, given what Charlie Hebdo is.
I am not charlie, I am Ahmed the dead cop.
Charlie ridiculed my faith and culture and I died defending his right to do so. #JesuisAhmed
You can't win arguments through HATE SPEECH, the only way to the other side of the 'Age of Religion' is through secular education. Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism amongst the rest are destined to go the route of Christianity but at hyper speed for the fundamental fact that they would not need to go through the painful process of discovery from Galileo to Darwin to Einstein to Planck to Watson and Crick, for the knowledge already exists! It would be totally unnecessary for Islam to be as blind as the first century of the Christian Reformation was that only slowly opened its eyes over several centuries. Whereas the Islamic Reformation towards a mirror of western secularism could take place within a few short decades for which the focus of the West should be to foster secular education.
Je ne suis pas Charlie.
By Nadeem Walayat
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