Charlie Hebdo co-founder says murdered editor 'dragged' staff to death with provocative cartoons
On Charlie Hebdo: A letter to my British friends
Oliver Tonneau writes:
As a Frenchman and a radical left militant at home and here in UK, I was puzzled and even shocked by these comments and would like, therefore, to give you a clear exposition of what my left-wing French position is on these matters.
(...)
Firstly, a few words on Charlie Hebdo, which was often “analyzed” in the British press on the sole basis, apparently, of a few selected cartoons. It might be worth knowing that the main target of Charlie Hebdo was the Front National and the Le Pen family. Next came crooks of all sorts, including bosses and politicians (incidentally, one of the victims of the bombing was an economist who ran a weekly column on the disasters caused by austerity policies in Greece). Finally, Charlie Hebdo was an opponent of all forms of organized religions, in the old-school anarchist sense: Ni Dieu, ni maître! They ridiculed the pope, orthodox Jews and Muslims in equal measure and with the same biting tone. They took ferocious stances against the bombings of Gaza. Even if their sense of humour was apparently inacceptable to English minds, please take my word for it: it fell well within the French tradition of satire – and after all was only intended for a French audience. It is only by reading or seeing it out of context that some cartoons appear as racist or islamophobic. Charlie Hebdo also continuously denounced the pledge of minorities and campaigned relentlessly for all illegal immigrants to be given permanent right of stay. I hope this helps you understand that if you belong to the radical left, you have lost precious friends and allies.
The reaction of horror & revulsion about the [#CharlieHebdo] shooting is justified as is the search for deeper roots https://t.co/c7oGE79DsI
— Jason Evan Mihalko (@jaypsyd) January 11, 2015
Noam Chomsky on "Living memory" : "which carefully assigns assaults on journalism and acts of terror to their proper categories: Theirs, which are horrendous; and Ours, which are virtuous and easily dismissed from living memory."
Here's How Arab Papers Reacted to the 'Charlie Hebdo' Massacre http://t.co/jNzPsY6Df4 via @micnews
— Kjetil Monkvik (@Monkvik) January 11, 2015
#JeSuisCharlie works to erase and ignore the magazine’s history of #xenophobia, #racism, and #homophobia. - http://t.co/6FTj7edQvF
— Jason Evan Mihalko (@jaypsyd) January 8, 2015
by Jacob Canfield
When faced with a terrorist attack against a satirical newspaper, the appropriate response seems obvious. Don't let the victims be silenced. Spread their work as far as it can possibly go. Laugh in the face of those savage murderers who don’t understand satire.
In this case, it is the wrong response.
Here’s what’s difficult to parse in the face of tragedy: yes, Charlie Hebdo is a French satirical newspaper. Its staff is white. Its cartoons often represent a certain, virulently racist brand of French xenophobia. While they generously claim to ‘attack everyone equally,’ the cartoons they publish are intentionally anti-Islam, and frequently sexist and homophobic.
#mustread article from former editor of The Onion "They cannot kill everyone who disagrees with them." http://t.co/skjjz7sGPn #CharlieHebdo— John Sargeant (@JPSargeant78) January 7, 2015
Freedom of speech cannot be killed"This will be framed by many as the latest salvo in an ongoing war between the West and Islam, when what this really amounts to is the slaughter of innocent people. These murderers don’t represent anyone but themselves, their own twisted view of reality. They don’t stand for an entire religion anymore than the Westboro Baptist Church stands for an entire religion or the Ku Klux Klan stands for an entire race.
@ms_molly_vog this is one of the best responses I've seen
— Monica Cassani (@BeyondMeds) January 9, 2015
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