The point of Charlie Hebdo is to cause offence. They do this by pushing buttons - holocaust denial, anti semitism, sexism, racism, etc.
If you hate that then paying any attention to them at all is probably the wrong tactic.
EDIT: Although some of the tweets pointing out that it's about the press hypocrisy (lots of sorrow for dead children; condemning all male migrants as rapists) have a good point.
Offensive for who? Let's try to avoid double-standards here. Mohammed images were offensive for many people in the world as well, but West protected it. So if the images were okay, this one should be protected in the same way.
To try to expand this a bit more, because Americans don't always understand Europe's limited version of freedom of speech.
In some EU countries holocaust denial is banned. Or anti-semitism is banned under race discrimination hate speech law. Or blasphemy[1] is banned. But that leaves a gap for hate speech against Muslims - they're not a racial group and they're not Christian, so there was nothing preventing for example the Mohammed cartoons.
So when Muslims protest the cartoons often they're not asking for much, they're just asking for something similar to what Jews and Christians have, or they're asking for the protections that Jews and Christians have to be relaxed.
In the context of the EU where freedom of speech is already limited that claim is not bizarre or out of place. Personally I'd want countries to remove some of the laws (eg, the blasphemy laws got dropped in England) rather than adding nebulous anti-Muslim hate speech to the law.
[1] EG, "Life of Brian" was banned from Glasgow cinemas for years because blasphemy; the comedian Stewart Lee went through a very expensive legal case for "Jerry Springer the Opera".
I think you are confusing most of Europe with the UK.
Most of Europe has freedom of speech which goes far beyond what is offered in the UK.
The only country where Holocaust denying is out right banned is Germany beyond that only France has a law that specifically protects against antisemitism.
And sorry but Muslims have way way more "freedom" as far as saying and doing shit goes, you virtually cannot criticize immigrants or Muslims in the current political climate in most European countries until a situation boils over and blows up into public rage.
People especially in the public sector are so afraid from being marked as racists that they try to cover up pretty much every possible scandal that involves Immigrants/Muslims until it blows up completely.
You can have the figures from the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and many other "controversial" organizations freely go about and preach pretty much genocide as long as they substitute Jews with Zionists.
> The only country where Holocaust denying is out right banned is Germany beyond that only France has a law that specifically protects against antisemitism.
It's actually 14 European nations according to Wikipedia. Some have more generalized genocide-denial-laws.
Aren't those under the wide banner of European Union Framework Decision for Combating Racism and Xenophobia?
It seems that the only prosecutions regarding it are pretty much exclusively related to France and Germany/Austria.
I do find these laws silly tho genocide denial should not be criminalized it only gives it legitimacy and vigor.
The brawl in the following tweets tells more about this than the actual cartoon.
Apparently calling people "dickheads" and "idiots" on twitter is the norm these days...
12 comments
[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 42.8 ms ] threadI don't think you can really do anything these days without someone taking offense, so you might as well just crack on with things.
If you hate that then paying any attention to them at all is probably the wrong tactic.
EDIT: Although some of the tweets pointing out that it's about the press hypocrisy (lots of sorrow for dead children; condemning all male migrants as rapists) have a good point.
In some EU countries holocaust denial is banned. Or anti-semitism is banned under race discrimination hate speech law. Or blasphemy[1] is banned. But that leaves a gap for hate speech against Muslims - they're not a racial group and they're not Christian, so there was nothing preventing for example the Mohammed cartoons.
So when Muslims protest the cartoons often they're not asking for much, they're just asking for something similar to what Jews and Christians have, or they're asking for the protections that Jews and Christians have to be relaxed.
In the context of the EU where freedom of speech is already limited that claim is not bizarre or out of place. Personally I'd want countries to remove some of the laws (eg, the blasphemy laws got dropped in England) rather than adding nebulous anti-Muslim hate speech to the law.
[1] EG, "Life of Brian" was banned from Glasgow cinemas for years because blasphemy; the comedian Stewart Lee went through a very expensive legal case for "Jerry Springer the Opera".
The only country where Holocaust denying is out right banned is Germany beyond that only France has a law that specifically protects against antisemitism.
And sorry but Muslims have way way more "freedom" as far as saying and doing shit goes, you virtually cannot criticize immigrants or Muslims in the current political climate in most European countries until a situation boils over and blows up into public rage.
People especially in the public sector are so afraid from being marked as racists that they try to cover up pretty much every possible scandal that involves Immigrants/Muslims until it blows up completely.
You can have the figures from the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and many other "controversial" organizations freely go about and preach pretty much genocide as long as they substitute Jews with Zionists.
It's actually 14 European nations according to Wikipedia. Some have more generalized genocide-denial-laws.
I do find these laws silly tho genocide denial should not be criminalized it only gives it legitimacy and vigor.