Showing posts with label Terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Terrorism. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Violence and religion in Paris

The same narratives will repeat themselves as reaction to the deadly attacks on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
  • There will be calls for national unity in France and flaming of concern over Muslim immigrants and threats to French values and culture. The latter will be echoed beyond France.
  • There will be calls for religious solidarity against violence, and there will also be condemnations of religion, especially Islam, as promoting violence, with mockery of Islam as a religion of peace.
  • There will be outrage over and sympathy for victims of terrorism in the heart of Paris, but little talk of violence perpetrated against Muslims or other non-Europeans/North Americans by radical groups. Let alone violence against such populations condoned or carried out by European and North American governments.
  • There will be even less informed talk about globalization and the regional economic/political polices that may increase or decrease cultural conflicts. At best just sweeping generalizations about "Islam vs. the West", in which the murderers will stand for "Islam".
  • There will absolutely be a flood of images offensive to Islam to demonstrate resistance and defiance of an attempt to curtail freedom of expression.

And in the end, what will have changed?