I am not Charlie

By tdf, January 10, 2015

I am Not Charlie.

The latest carrot and donkey led social media frenzy focused on the recent execution of staff at Charlie Hebdo is unsurprising yet still bothersome. The flames of anti-muslim hysteria have been well and truly fanned ever higher and I am reminded of the spastic circus lynch mob mentality which was born out of the death of australian wildlife expert, Steve Irwin…

Irwin lost his life when filming a sting-ray off the coast of Queensland. It was an unfortunate affair, yet far from unexpected, given the obvious dangers of dealing with dangerous creatures in the wild. Irwin had long courted his own demise through his ‘colourful’ showmanship at close quarters with various animals known to attack and kill humans, with the most infamous incident involving holding his 1 month old baby in his arms whilst feeding a chicken carcass to a 4 metre long salt water crocodile.

The sting ray attacked with its tail spine when Irwin was attempting to film it swimming away, probably mistaking him for a predator, and reacting…instinctively. His heart was pierced in seconds.

After his death a certain hysteria took hold of small pockets of the natives, who set out into the australian coastal waters and embarked on a sting-ray cull. Seemingly in revenge.

The parallels are slight, yet they exist. For like Irwin, the Charlie Hebdo crowd courted the attention of dangerous animals. Which is not to say in any way whatsoever that Muslims are all dangerous animals. Far from it…

There are approximately 1.5 billion Muslims amongst the human masses on Earth. A rather well known aspect of their religion involves blasphemy. Blasphemy of the Prophet or the Koran is taken extremely seriously, and is punishable by death according to the Koran.

Charlie Hebdo were well aware of this before, during and after they published the cartoons which were specifically designed to be deeply offensive to 1.5 billion Muslims. And three of those 1.5 billion decided to respond.

To deeply offend a group of people of that size, the blood-letting in Paris not just comes as no surprise; it was to be expected.

The French may well have a global reputation for arrogance, and focused mainly on Paris, also rudeness. Yet they are not stupid. The Charlie Hebdo crew must have been fully aware of the implications of their ‘challenging’ cartoons.

Would a satirical magazine in Rome produce and release to the public cartoons depicting Jesus as a pimp and Moses as a rent-boy and the Pope as a paedophile and then expect no recriminations? If the legal system did not get to them first, it would come as no shock to find them shot dead. For I suspect that at least 3 of the 1.2 billion Roman Catholics on the planet might take grave offence.

No, the only surprise to emerge from the débâcle is that there appears to have been scant protection in place to avert what took place.

Stephane Charbonnier has received multiple death threats which is understandable when you consider he was brutally offending 1.5 billion people in a specific manner which not just their religion, but in many cases their state law, punishes with anything ranging from a fine, to lengthy imprisonment, to death, and the holy book upon which their religion stands, demands death in response to such blasphemy.

Charbonnier, whose offices had been fire-bombed in 2011 in response to cartoons mocking the Prophet, had said that “I prefer to die than live like a rat” and also that he would rather “die standing than live on his knees”. Which is all well and good, but this was not a man living under the Stasi or Gestapo or the House of Saud, this was a man living in Paris.

Freedom of speech is important, as is respect. The two do not always go hand in hand. Did Charbonnier and his cohorts see themselves as pushing the boundaries? If you live in a peaceful society, where your liberty is protected, should you be allowed to deeply offend 1.5 billion people and expect no repercussions?

I do not condone the killings. In any way whatsoever. They were horrid and brutal. Nor do I condone Charbonnier. Who has achieved with his ‘art’ likely nothing more than allowing the French and other governments in the West to further clamp down on civil liberties. And that is the irony. The arrogance of Charbonnier, will lead to the exact opposite of what he – perhaps – had hoped to achieve, that is, of course, other than selling magazines.

There are dangerous Catholics, bloodthirsty Muslims, genocidal Jews, savage Hindus…Even the Buddhists, whom the West loves to consider peace loving ascetics, can prove accommodating of revenge. The dalai lama himself expressed the need for compassion for Osama Bin Laden, yet went on to acknowledge that “if something is serious…you have to take counter-measures”.

Buddhists have not always been the pacifists we in the West seem to assume is the mainstay of their nature and the core doctrine of their spiritual leanings.

I know of none of the modern major spiritual belief systems which have not been drenched in blood through history. Do you?

The western media, which is a propaganda machine operating at high frequencies, has encouraged the outpouring of anti-Muslim Je Suis Charlie sentiments. No doubt there are hundreds, if not thousands, if not millions of westerners now more certain in their support for waging war on Islamic extremism. Yet do these mongs ponder the Nazi hordes slaughtering civilians in the Donbass region of Ukraine? The thousands of Palestinians massacred and imprisoned and tortured in the Middle East? The Libyans dead or now desperately trying to survive under various rival lunatic factions? Or the thousands killed in Iraq? Or the families bombed into a bloody mess as collateral damage in Afghanistan and tribal regions of Pakistan? Or the thousands who were ritually slaughtered by the US ‘liberation force’ in Fallujah?

All of which we paid for with our taxes. Our governments were responsible for such atrocities. And yet did any of those hundreds of thousands dead, maimed, injured and now living under horrifically oppressive rule ever publish cartoons deeply offending 1.5 billion people? No they did not. Yet we conveniently avoid them. Instead write ‘je suis Charlie’ on our facebook accounts…

Before we condemn 1.5 billion people on the basis of the actions of 3 of their number, we must understand the crimes of our own people. Which are numerous and ongoing. I find contempt for those who respond to my ranting of Western sponsored global terrorism with a shrug of the shoulders and dismissive comments about ‘crazy conspiracy theories’. They instantly seem…dumb. Lame. Sheep. And I am unsure, to this day, of the origins of this warped assumption that we in the West always do, have always done, The Right Thing. Wishful, but spastic thinking.

Peek here>>
 http://thedissolutefox.com/the-us-war-machine/

The greater irony is that it is our own leaders who have supported and continue to support Islamic extremism…Our best pals are the Saudis, the breeding ground of the very worst islamic extremism.

Yet as with the Australians who embarked upon a sting ray cull, there will be a percentage of westerners who consume only the media message, and grow more anti-Muslim. Spastics. We live in the land of the dumb.

Insisting on the right to be offensive, obnoxious and defamatory to 1.5 billion Muslims is an antagonizing bastard cousin of the right to freedom of speech. It has everything to do with demanding the right to be as offensive, as obnoxious, as defamatory, as you please, to as many people as you please, and expecting the law to protect you.

Please refrain from joining the chorus of woeful lament and idiotic fervour for revenge. Let us stop the terrorism in which we are complicit and funding, before focusing on the terrorism of 3 in 1.5 billion muslims…