Deadly gun attack in Paris: Global reactions & discussion

Most of people in France , hate Marine Le Pen and Le Front national. It's not like in the UK

what you say has nothing to do with the massacre

if you think that a cartoon goes against the law, you file a case. In fact, several cases were filed against Charlie Hebdo, but (to my knowledge) they always won.

The law is our common rule, and the basis of civil society. If you take up the law in your hands, you are wrong. The judges determine if a cartoon or an article go against the law

People are offended for the most various and even futile reasons. You cannot follow everyone's whims and desires

E.g., the Quran says that "unbelievers are the vilest of animals". I am deeply, deeply offended. The Quran should be prohibited.

By not allowing me to draw something, you're offending me and violating my religious rights.

Why must I cater to your religious views and you cannot cater to mine that everybody should be able to draw anyone?

Not only do we need more columns, we need more columns telling us how in the wake of this event we need to scrutinise the West and its racism and failure to make Muslims feel comfortable. We need columns to tell us how Islam means Peace and this attack had nothing to do with religion, and if you question that you are a bigot. We need columns to take the spotlight off the perpetrators of actual murders and put it on our supposed failings

I agree with some of that, but I don't think we can be quite so confident that the anti-'fascist' side is 'winning', given that the Jihadis now have their own country, which they didn't before and are on the edge of having several more. (Yemen and presumably Afghanistan as soon as the US packs up and leaves it to the Taliban.)

I also don't think that 'Islamofascist' is really all that accurate. What really motivated these people? Hamza is in the mix (perhaps predictably) as are ISIS, but surely we should look at Algeria if we want to really get to the bottom of this. Like Egypt, Algeria originally had a reasonably moderate and idealistic Islamic-tinged democratic movement that was suppressed with the most appalling brutality. The cruelty directed at those who opposed the tyranny of the French-supported government of Algeria over many years is amongst the worst of any country in the world. Against that background, is it totally surprising that young men from poor backgrounds with few prospects in a country that practises public contempt and hate for their religion almost as a state-sanctioned activity and who must be fully aware of the history of their country are extremely angry?

They are prey to every passing fanatic with a plausible message aimed at giving them some feeling of worthiness and meeting their desire for revenge.

I am not condoning their actions, but there is so much ignorance on this in France and here. The French would prefer to forget their imperialistic oppression of Algeria and also choose to permit vitriolic attacks on Muslim beliefs as a way of life. Is that right?

At least the attackers were killed by police. IMO, more British police need to carry guns. They often have sidearms around where I live, but I'm out in the countryside where there are lots of people with shotguns and hunting rifles. I think city police need to be able to despatch someone if the law calls for it, if it means saving lots of lives. Of course, the downside to this is being able to control it and be sensible about it. I think we have a system that works very well - the tasers in cities, guns in countryside - considering the harsh gun control. I do think that we're close to being perfect, but having just a few more armed beat bobbies in the cities would be helpful and send a strong message that (while it sounds violent, it's important!) we might be an open society, but if you come to our country and try to harm our people, there's someone on half the streets in the city who'll put a hollowpoint in your head!

The video of the terrorist getting shot up even after he went down is amazing

I bet the liberals are crying about this. I bet they wish that they could have been rehabilitated

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Very good article by Omid Safi, Director of Duke University's Islamic Studies Center.

http://www.onbeing.org/blog/9-points-to-ponder-on-the-paris-shooting-and-charlie-hebdo/7193

I also wonder what we do when the “freedom to offend” is not applied equally across the board, but targets again and again communities that are marginalized and ostracized.

it is free speech as applied disproportionately against a community that is racially, religiously and socioeconomically on the margins of French — and many other European — society.

Very good article by Omid Safi, Director of Duke University's Islamic Studies Center.

http://www.onbeing.org/blog/9-points-to-ponder-on-the-paris-shooting-and-charlie-hebdo/7193

I'm afraid he talks nonsense when he says:

The cartoons did not target Islamic communities at all. They targeted hypocrisy in religion, the use of religion for political and terrorist purposes, and those who suborned religious motifs in their ideology.

These two miscreants were born in France, what basis do they have to claim their attack was based on France's actions in Algeria decades before they were born, or the actions of the Algerian government when they never even lived there?

The fact one of the brothers had been caught with child pornography speaks volumes about character and motivations.

Interesting article in Slate, comparing Charlie Hebdo to white power KKK magazines.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/01/charlie_hebdo_the_french_satirical_magazine_is_heroic_it_is_also_racist.html

It isn't accurate to depict Hebdo as some kind of bastion of rational values surrounded by a sea of furious reactionary Muslims. A more realistic view should take into account French racism, colonial attitudes, the notoriously arrogant world view of the French literary elites and the tendency of France as a nation to pretend that it does not have religious or ethnic minorities, or that if it does, they should have no say in how the Republic functions.

The video of the terrorist getting shot up even after he went down is amazing

I bet the liberals are crying about this. I bet they wish that they could have been rehabilitated

Posted from TSR Mobile

15 dead in Paris generates a 62 page thread and counting. 2000 dead in Nigeria many kids and women and I can't see any discussion of it here, certainly not on the front page. Oh, Nigerians are black, we don't care. Sick.

This was an attack on our doorstep. An attack on our freedom of expression and an attack on our freedom of press. It was an attack on the very cornerstones of our society. Of course we are going to talk about it at length.

These freedoms which have been attacked are what 60+ million died for during World War 2. Our ancestors died so that we could have the ability to continue to express ourselves.

If you don't think that this is important then you should just **** off.