January 14, 2015

I don't know...

.



I don't know if Charlie Hebdo is racist or not, because I don't read French and don't have the French cultural background to properly judge the situation. But more and more I realize this cannot be the point. The point is that the Arab world is the true scapegoat of our time, that history teaches us there is no end to what might be done to any given scapegoat, to how horrifying it can get (if Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are not already horrifying enough) and that worldwide Islamophobia is on the rise in ways I find extremely frightening.



I have now read far too many articles on the topic but here are three I found convincing:

Charlie Hebdo and the hypocrisy of pencils

Charlie Hebdo and the Limits of the Republic

“Charlie Hebdo”, not racist? If you say so…


I'm not sure I agree with all of it, but this article has made me (continue to) further rethink my position:

Paris, 2015



.

No comments: