SteeleRedux

‘Charlie Hebdo's brave, irreverent souls may well have soundly approved.’

One of the Hebdo cartoons has Mohammed naked, on all-fours, arse-up, hairy balls on display, with a porno cameraman filming him from behind. Mohammed is saying, ‘You love my butt?’

This is not free speech or satire. It's deliberate provocation and grotesque cultural insult – not brave irreverance.

Imagine a cartoon of Jews en route to Dachau naked, on all-fours, arse-up … and so on … being filmed by Leni Riefenstahl and saying: ‘You love my butt?’

Or the Virgin Mary or Aboriginals or African Americans or Gazans or Anzacs at Gallipoli or children captive to a paedophile … cartooned in similar manner? Would this be seen as brave irreverance?

Charlie Hebdo repeatedly ignored pleas by the French government to stop ‘pouring oil on a fire’ and ‘being needlessly provocative’. Also, the magazine has twice been sued by separate Islamic groups for inciting ethnic hatred.

The Hebdo victims did not deserve to die in such a manner (and I’m more than suspicious that this may be yet another false flag designed to foster acceptance of enhanced anti-terrorism powers), but Hebdo’s arrogant disdain for cultural sensitivities and its foolish creative urge to ‘push boundaries’ were a massacre waiting to happen

Killarney,
Yes, exactly the staff of Charlie Hebdo didn't deserve to die but they got what was coming to them.
The reason Charb and his colleagues were treated leniently by the French authorities is that they were Leftists, some of them old '68 campaigners, the voice of the older generation of French Socialists.
The idea of "free speech" in France is a joke, if you're a Socialist you can say pretty much whatever you want, if you're a right winger or even an outspoken Liberal like Dieudonne and you say something the politicians or the media don't like then you'll be hauled before a court or a human rights tribunal and probably jailed.
This is the country where people go to prison for questioning the "Holocaust" narrative and where the society of historians have signed an agreement to the effect that they will never peer review any study of WW2 which contradicts the Leftist narrative.
The French Left, like the Left everywhere are hypocrites, the problem is that especially at the highest level even when their hypocrisy is exposed there's no dissonsnce in their minds.Even a massacre causes no introspection or self doubt among the leadership group, the Left narrative is busted time and time again but it's all they know so it's all they can do to keep up appearances.

@ You-cant-stop-the-boats-Killarney,

<<Or the Virgin Mary or Aboriginals or African Americans or Gazans or Anzacs at Gallipoli or children captive to a paedophile … cartooned in similar manner? Would this be seen as brave irreverance?>>

I think you will find that similar DEGRADING depictions of western cultural icons are very prevalent in the west ..you might take a peekaboo one day,eh!

Dear Lego,

Persecuting the Americans? I am one and am glad to be one. I love my country. It is a free country, and it can even be made better by using our free speech to point out where it can be made better.

It is part of the American tradition to speak up when we see wrong. Henry Thoreau, the Abolitionists, the muckrakers and many others are part of that tradition, and, in my own small way, I hope I am one also.

Mark Twain said, "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." The United States is much more than the government which happens to be in power.

Mark Twain was skeptical about some of those who claim to love their country: "Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Anti-Imperialist_League describes the organisation in which Mark Twain was prominent. He was a patriotic American who was not blind to his country's faults and wanted to make it better.

But you're wrong Davidf and typical of a radical leftist academic who has corrupted the West spreading their propaganda in our institutions.

And you still don't understand Leonard Cohen's lyrics. Interesting you say - yeh? And no further comment. You always refer back to the Year dot and its all been done before and oh those bloody Christians - all their fault. Yet you are unable get Cohen's modern take that is totally irrelevant of the past. How come leftists are so thick and pathetically self righteous and morally sick?

Leonard Cohen - The Future (Lyrics)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnaxvBsyigM

Bazz,

That was Ayaan Hirsi Ali [one brave lady] and the segment can be seen at
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/