Charlie Hebdo affair: Not really about ‘freedom of speech’ – Commentary + video

Commentary: Charlie Hebdo affair: Not really about ‘freedom of speech’
Published on January 23, 2015 – caribbeannewsnow.com
By Juleus Ghunta
juleus_ghunta3.jpg

Juleus Ghunta is a peace activist. Contact him at 
juleusghunta@gmail.com

The Charlie Hebdo shooting in France has been, quite rightly, widely condemned. Some jihadist groups, however, including the Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), have celebrated it as an inevitable backlash, in a broad sense, to the West’s violence and neo-colonialist exploits in the East, and in particular, to Charlie Hebdo’s (alleged?) racism and Islamophobia.

 

In what has become a global stand in solidarity, the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie (I am Charlie) has been flashed across millions of screens. Equally visible, are the views of a growing number of contrarians who have lashed back with hashtags of their own: #JeNeSuisPasCharlie (IamNOTCharlie) and #JesuisAhmed.  

Ahmed Merabet was the French Muslim police who was murdered by the shooters while guarding Charlie Hebdo staff. Ahmed, like most Muslims, was not a violent extremist. Invoking the spirit of Voltaire, sympathisers claim that Mr Merabet died in defence of Charlie Hebdo’s right to “attack and insult” what was sacred to him.      [Read more]
By guyaneseonline, on 01/23/2015 at 4:23 am, under Arts / Culture, Business, International News, Personalities, Politics, Racial Conflict, Religion. Tags: , , , , . 2 Comments
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  • gigi  On 01/23/2015 at 12:40 pm
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    Thank you. The immediate thought that came to my mind concerning Charlie Hebdo was “false flag or blowback?” Then I became curious about its funding because I was very dubious of its circulation being able to keep it financially operational (much like SN and KN in Guyana). I found justification for my thinking in a Pepe Escobar’s, a well respected journalist, article hinting at the same issue. I’ve subsequently read several other credible articles arriving at similar conclusions.

    Killing Charlie: Cui Bono?

    Who profits?

    …Cui bono, then, with killing Charlie? Only those whose agenda is to demonize Islam. Not even a bunch of brainwashed fanatics would pull off the Charlie carnage to show people who accuse them of being barbarians that they are, in fact, barbarians. French intel at least has concluded that this is no underwear bomber stunt. This is a pro job. That happens to take place just a few days after France recognizes Palestinian statehood. And just a few days after General Hollande demanded the lifting of sanctions against the Russian “threat”. […] The Obama administration is already mobilized to offer “protection” – Mob-style – to a Western Europe that is just, only just, starting to be diffident of the pre-fabricated Russian “threat”. And just as it happens, when the Empire of Chaos mostly needs it, evil “terra” once again rears its ugly head.”

    http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/09/killing-charlie-cui-bono/

    —-
    These crimes “will never be purged away, but with Blood”

    …You may find comfort in the mob, with its gutter talk of “justification” and what is “approved,” and what kinds of resistance are permissible. Always remember: the mob that comforts you today will kill you tomorrow. […] I’ve read enough of the commentary about the Hebdo murders to know that most of what has been written on this subject is unsanitary garbage which will damage your intellectual health and well-being. I can recommend only two articles (there may be a few others worth reading that I’ve missed, but they are certainly very, very few in number): this one, and this one.

    As for all the rest of it: reader beware.

    http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/these-crimes-will-never-be-purged-away.html

  • gigi  On 01/23/2015 at 3:53 pm
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    Insightful article linking Charlie Hebdo to NATO

    Je ne Suis Pas Charlie: The Extremely Dark and Unexamined Underside of the Charlie Hebdo Affair

    “What Charlie Hebdo does is not journalism, it is sophomoric jokes and thinly disguised propaganda. Hebdo’s general tone and themes place it completely outside the mythic tableau of heroic defender of free speech or daring journalism, it being very much a vehicle for the interests of American imperialism through NATO.”

    http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/john-chuckman/60463/je-ne-suis-pas-charlie-the-extremely-dark-and-unexamined-underside-of-the-charlie-hebdo-affair

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