Killarney,

Would you put Salman Rushdie in the category of unnecessarily provocative - and deserving of the fatwa?

http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2015/01/slavoj-i-ek-charlie-hebdo-massacre-are-worst-really-full-passionate-intensity

Slavoj Žižek on the Charlie Hebdo massacre: Are the worst really full of passionate intensity?

" Now, when we are all in a state of shock after the killing spree in the Charlie Hebdo offices, it is the right moment to gather the courage to think. We should, of course, unambiguously condemn the killings as an attack on the very substance our freedoms, and condemn them without any hidden caveats (in the style of "Charlie Hebdo was nonetheless provoking and humiliating the Muslims too much"). But such pathos of universal solidarity is not enough – we should think further.

Such thinking has nothing whatsoever to do with the cheap relativisation of the crime (the mantra of "who are we in the West, perpetrators of terrible massacres in the Third World, to condemn such acts"). It has even less to do with the pathological fear of many Western liberal Leftists to be guilty of Islamophobia. For these false Leftists, any critique of Islam is denounced as an expression of Western Islamophobia; Salman Rushdie was denounced for unnecessarily provoking Muslims and thus (partially, at least) responsible for the fatwa condemning him to death, etc. The result of such stance is what one can expect in such cases: the more the Western liberal Leftists probe into their guilt, the more they are accused by Muslim fundamentalists of being hypocrites who try to conceal their hatred of Islam. This constellation perfectly reproduces the paradox of the superego: the more you obey what the Other demands of you, the guiltier you are. It is as if the more you tolerate Islam, the stronger its pressure on you will be . . ."

Intrigued:

"Police Chief Helric Fredou, the man apparently in charge of the investigation into the Charlie Hebdo massacre, has been found dead in his office - apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound from his own gun."

You can't locate it on MSM - but "it's being well covered by fringe alternative 'conspiracy' sites."

Hmmmm...

Try this link, Poirot...

http://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/limousin/2015/01/08/limoges-suicide-d-un-commissaire-de-police-626916.html

Dear Poirot,

There are a couple of French sites that are running the story, which doesn't mean it has been confirmed but the prime airplay in the English speaking world seems to be from the websites conspiracy nutters who want to imagine all sorts of machinations.

This piece is probably closest to the real situation;

We learned this morning, a Commissioner SRPJ Limoges has committed suicide last night in his office with his service weapon . Information confirmed by his superiors. It is unknown at this time the reasons for his actions. He would have killed himself that night to 1 hour. The Commissioner Helric Fredou  aged 45 years was from Limoges began his career in 1997 as a police officer at the regional office the judicial police of Versailles, before returning to Limoges. He was deputy director of the regional police service since 2012. His father was a former police officer, his mother was a nurse in the emergency context CHU Limoges. He was single and had no children. According to the police union commissioner was depressed and experiencing burnout . In November 2013, the Commissioner Fredou had discovered the lifeless body of his colleague, number 3 of SRPJ Limoges, who had also committed suicide with his service weapon in his office. He was also 44 years old. The Commissioner Fredou, like all agents SRPJ worked yesterday on the case of the massacre at the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo . In particular, he surveyed the family of one of the victims. He killed himself before completing its report.  A psychological cell was set up in the police station. 
http://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/limousin/2015/01/08/limoges-suicide-d-un-commissaire-de-police-626916.html

Hi Jay, thanks for the link. The term seems to be a portmanteau for a fairly loose collection of ideas that have little in common, which is always a bit of a red flag for me, since it usually obscures more than it reveals.

I suspect that you would agree with some of the things described on that WP page and I know I would (although by no means all), but that is lost in the use of the broad label.

I didn't watch the YouTube links, I'm sorry, but I think I got the gist from your descriptions. Do you think there might be something more fundamental than religion driving the unrest they show?

Jay of Melbourne "The MSM lie about everything all of the time, I agree, the uncensored video doesn't seem show a murder, it appears to show a Policeman collapsed in a state of panic begging for his life and a shot fired which misses him, but all that means is that the media is telling yet another lie, it doesn't mean that the event was staged."

Jay I think is was staged because there was no bullet imprint on the pavement where smoke left the barrel of the gun. Secondly there was no gun recoil and AK47 has enormous amo. The bullets had to be blanks. Trained assassins do not miss at point blank range.Why would hooded terrorists who have precision military training leave their ID in their vehicle?
Why did the police chief in charge commit suicide ?

Thanks for the links, WmTrevor and SteeleRedux...looks to me that the Charlie Hebdo event tipped this policeman over the edge psychologically.

But really I am interested in the late 20th/early 21st century intersection between Islam and the West.

I'm reminded of the notion of the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object.

Away from the West - an event simultaneously unfolded (although, as expected, reaps far less a mention for it's geographical location)

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/01/boko-haram-kills-too-many-to-count-in-nigeria/384395/

"Boko Haram Kills 'Too Many to Count' in Nigeria"

What can we make of the likes of Boko Haram and IS...except that by confecting a particularly ideology and grafting the worst of it onto their religion, these "men" justify themselves regressing to savages to satisfy some innate will to bloody slaughter.

Speechless....