This is just what the crazy Muslim protesters need, a vigorous fuck you instead of sniveling apologies for free speech (which, alas, the French government instantly resorted to in response.)
Mods: I wasn’t sure where to put this. Please move if you think it’s the wrong forum.
I think deliberately publishing something offensive to provoke a group of people (some of whom are very violent people) is stupid and irresponsible, even within the context of free speech. France already has Muslim unrest within its own country…I can’t imagine being a patriotic Frenchman that owned a magazine being privvy to something like this.
From a Google Image search on “charlie hebdo,” it looks like several of their past covers have included a cartoon of Mohammed. (At least I think they’re covers; the linked article says the new cartoon appears on the back page.)
It really makes you wonder just exactly what the hell this person is trying to accomplish by putting such inflammatory material out there. If nothing more than stirring up trouble, then mission accomplished.
WRT free speech, this is tantamount to yelling “FIRE” in a theatre.
I disagree.
This is the equivalent of the Slutwalk where women wear revealing clothes to push back against a police officer who said women should not dress like sluts to stay safe from attack.
It’s the equivalent of people open carrying firearms in response to politicians threatening their second amendment rights.
It’s the equivalent of bikers doing a protest ride in an area that has tried to shoo them away.
Is it a fuck you to Muslim extremists? Of course. But, it’s a well deserved one. It’s standing up to the bully. Letting them know that some of us in free nations have a right to free speech and we don’t need to apologize for it.
Good for France. It’s about time those cheese eating surrender monkey’s got something right.
So if some innocent French people whom have no ties to this magazine die as a result of violent protests by Muslims offended by this you’re okay with that? I do agree in principle with the whole “fuck you guys and your stone age religion and behavior”, but Western nations like the US and France already enjoy many freedoms, including speech, that many Muslims do not. Why provoke them intentionally? What purpose does it really serve?
A threat of mass violence, in other words?
What is the use of having a right if you’re too frightened to exercise it?
I’m obviously not okay with that, but I would assign full blame to the protesters who committed violent acts, rather than to the people who published a cartoon in a newspaper.
The original article left out a key detail. Myself, along with many others I’m sure, did not know that the French weekly Charlie Hebdo was actually published from within a French embassy in the Middle East. While initially worried about a potentially rash and irresponsible risk to human safety from a country that already enjoys considerable freedom of speech, knowing that the Charlie Hebdo staff themselves are on the front lines of this conflict is what really pushed me in favor of this brave gesture in support of freedom of speech.
That does make it a brave act rather than general asshattery.
Meh. That’s not the first time the editors of Charlie Hebdo annoy Muslim fundies. They’re professional shit distrubers and they’re not afraid to pay the price for it. Think The Onion, but nastier.
As far as I know the magazine is published in Paris and has its offices there. They were firebombed after a previous provocation.
Exactly.
Pretty sure you just got wooshed by low flying sarcasm.
Do you have a cite for anyone from the open carry community committing or even threatening to commit violence?
Has Der Trihs ever had a cite for anything?
Of course not.
He adds no value to the board and is a parody of himself. He should have been banned a long time ago. His posts are pure ignorance, without a hint of self awareness.
I don’t know why I bother to respond to him. I should just ignore him like I do with a few others on the board who aren’t worth responding to.
But that’s just it…invariably these people that do this, like the Dutch cartoonist, go into hiding for their own safety, meanwhile, some innocent schlub from the same country is killed just because he or she is from the same country the offensive material came from.
I mean, I see what you’re saying, I really do…but some Muslims don’t really need an excuse to hate America or the West in general…but we are giving them one in the name of free speech when we already have free speech and we and they know it.
Do they know it?
In Egypt, for decades now they have a ministry of information which determines what can be broadcast and not broadcast.
These protesters are uneducated young people who may not know or understand free speech. They probably think that if the government of France or the US wanted to it could simply order the publication not to produce images of the Prophet.
Charlie Hebdo’s wikipedia page also has a good quote from them:
If a group of Catholics threatens violence if they publish a photo of the Pope should that influence them to stop publication as well?