Gunmen have shot dead 12 people at the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in an apparent militant Islamist attack.
Four of the magazine's well-known cartoonists, including its editor-in-chief, were among those killed, as well as two police officers.
The magazine has outraged the militant Islamists before.
Yet, before anyone starts tarring a religion of a billion or more people for this, ask yourselves if all Christians are to blame for the bombings of abortion clinics and the murders of doctors who have performed them. Ask yourselves if all Christians are to blame for the Srebrenica massacre or the Rwandan genocide.
Murder and terror in the name of a religion is hardly unique to Islam.
2 comments:
I've been a fan and a subscriber since 1993. This has been a shock. It's really strange and disorienting to read articles that refer to Charb, Cabu, Tignous, and Oncle Bernard by their real names.
The rector of the Mosque of Paris was on TV, looking just as shaken as I feel.
Consider:
1) French Muslims tend to stand out from the crowd, often being of African or Arab ancestry.
2) French police have spent decades oppresing Muslims, especially the youth.
3) French Muslims tend to live in poor areas, grouped together.
4) Unemployment among the Muslim community in France is much higher than average.
5) Riots often breakout in these communities after police beat or kill some residents.
6) At least one National Party (PFN) makes overt suggestion on deporting Muslims to improve the country.
I suspect no one in France is really surprised by these events. Certainly, lots of French understand why large numbers of Muslim youth and young adults folk to ISIS and their ilk.
Now replace references to Muslims with African-Americabs, and France with America, and ponder.
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