This is a guest post by DaveM
Just when you think Al Jazeera couldn’t sink any lower it always seems find a way.
First of all it was an apologist for the ideology which the murderers subscribed to.
Then there was denial, and especially when it came to the murder of Jews. Which was followed by attempts to create false equivalences and frequent use the straw man fallacy.
But that just wasn’t enough. Oh no. Now it’s decided to engage in victim blaming in its op-ed “Is Charlie Hebdo pouring oil on the fire?”
What’s this vile channel going to do for an encore? Laugh at rape victims?
———-
Is Charlie Hebdo pouring oil on the fire?
Ahmad As-Sabaaii
“Overstepping the red lines and ignoring all of the calls issued by Muslim clerics, French newspaper Charlie Hebdo continued with its provocative editorial line. Instead of calming the Muslim street and affirming that there is a difference between “terrorism” and Islam, did it fan the flames while paying no heed to who or what they will burn?
It appears that Charlie Hebdo is insisting that there’s no distinction between freedom of expression and opinion and offending the Prophet Muhammed, peace and prayers be upon him. This being offensive to over one and a half billion Muslims worldwide.
After the Paris attack it published a cartoon which is hurtful to the Noble Prophet, and put it on the cover of its first edition which came out after the attack which resulted in 12 people being killed, including most of the satirical magazine’s editorial board.
The newspaper which was threatened with bankruptcy and (usually) sells at most 6,000 copies per week increased its print run to around 5 million copies. And this after the initial decision to print 3 million copies and translate them into 5 languages including Arabic.
It did this because it ran out of copies minutes after they went out on sale in France, in which people stood in line hoping to get hold of a copy.And in response to the publication of this issue, activists on social media launched a strong campaign of comments and hashtags on the newspaper whose surviving members of its editorial board have refused to apologise for the picture which shows the Noble Prophet crying and holding a sign which says Je suis Charlie.
Fake Heroism
And the newspaper wasn’t satisfied to just to do this but it also published cartoons mocking the Arabs who took part in the march in solidarity with its employees who were killed in the attack. It was noticeable that Turkish opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet published 4 pages from the new issue of Charlie Hebdo.
The most prominent of the Hashtags was “Against insulting the Prophet” which a few hours after its inauguration sits at the top of the Twitter trends list in Egypt, in addition to the hashtags “Pray for the Prophet”, “Except Allah’s prophet”, “I would sacrifice my mother and father for you Allah’s prophet”, and “If they knew who you were, you the best of Allah’s creations, nobody would have dared to insult you”.
The activists again condemned the newspaper’s publication of the harmful cartoons. One of them said that the newspaper, “exploited the attack which targeted it and was condemned by all the Muslim leaders, and did so in order to continue its provocative policies against Muslims.”
Another activist called Habiib said, “as for now, the issue has changed into fake heroism and disgusting hypocrisy which transgressed all red-lines and gone outside the framework of freedom of opinion – to become prostitution, blasphemy and confrontation with the other, and sneering at [what this other regards as] sacred. This cannot be indulged or forgiven”.
And in response to the accusation that Muslims are terrorists Facebook activist Darar holds that, “terrorism isn’t just deeds but also words. Specifically if it creates chaos and encourages violence. Charlie Hebdo is a terrorist newspaper. It should be held to account under anti-terrorism (laws). It is the cause of acts of violence on a wide scale, and a cause of the outbreak of racism and instigation”.
Instead of using the slogan “I am Charlie” activists have been putting out pictures and slogans saying “I am Muslim. I love the Prophet Muhammed peace and prayers be upon him. I am not Charlie”.
Practical Steps
There also appeared a picture which was said to be of cartoonist who worked at the newspaper in which he said, “Charlie Hebdo got rid of me because I drew a picture of Sarkozy’s son when he converted to Judaism for material reasons, then I was sacked after I refused to apologise”.
The Million March against terrorism in Paris didn’t pass without activists firing their arrows at it. Some of them said, “Would it not be more appropriate for the leaders of the Arab and Islamic countries to lead a demonstration against pictures insulting to our prophet?” And “Amani” wondered, “In regard to those presidents and rulers who demonstrated, a new issue of the newspaper came out today insulting your prophet. So what are you going to do? Whoever went to the demonstration in Paris went to help those who insulted your prophet. Oh Ummah, the other ummahs laughed at its ignorance” (it’s become the laughing stock)
As for practical steps go the account “Way of Guidance” says that, “In my view condemnation via an electronic protest is not enough. There should be a world event taking place at a specific time lead by all the world’s Muslims.”
Other activists began publishing a list of French products paving the way for a campaign calling on people to boycott its products as had happened previously with Danish goods.”
