What gets me most about Charlie Hebdo outside of the violence of the shooting is the stupidity for which these people died. There are so many legitimate criticisms to be made about Islam, particularly regarding its...let's stay complicated relationship to religious violence and (attempted or achieved) political/social control of the societies in which it is practiced, but what do these people decide to do? "Muhammad is stupid", basically. In really raunchy ways, but that's the basic message. "Nyeh nyeh nyeh! We don't like this guy that you like, so here's mud in your eye!" It's juvenile, gross, and not really the hill anyone should die defending. And worse still it makes people who want to have serious discussions about what we can/should do about the religious (particularly Islamic) extremism that plagues the modern age have to try to have them within a framework set up by a bunch of puerile brats, knife/gun-wielding maniacs, and naive "mulitculturalist" bootlickers, none of which care about anything at all beyond having their viewpoints and worldviews indulged to the fullest. Want to tell a cartoonist not to go out of their way to offend people? How dare you! It's a European tradition, you stupid Christian fascist!* Want to tell a Muslim who will kill you for offending his prophet, or doing something else outside the bounds of what his religion allows for that their actions are in no way justifiable, and only bring more collective hatred upon them (just as the cartoonist's actions do, from the Muslim view)? How dare you! It's an Islamic tradition, you dirty kuffar! You can't win. Don't try. Stop playing the secularistists and Islamists game. They're two sides of the same rotten coin.
I'd pray for those involved in the Charlie Hebdo massacre and fallout in the same way that we are to pray for all of our enemies, that they might be shown the mercy upon which we all depend. So, yes, Lord have mercy. But I am not Charlie either. And Muhammad is not God's messenger. And I cannot believe that this is where we are as a civilization at this point.
(*Note: I read an interview with American cartoonist/expatriate in France R. Crumb where that's essentially what he said -- that Charlie Hebdo-esque cartoons aren't something people outside of Europe can understand, because of their deep roots in French history and politics and artistic tradition and blahblahblah...apparently we now not only have to defend them in order to be on the side of "Freedom", but we have to find them to be incredibly deep statements about the world. Yeah, I'm going to pass on that...call me an ugly American all you want, I fail to see what's noble in this hackneyed schlock. It's not worth the paper it's printed on, either as satire or as art or as commentary on religion in the modern world, or as anything at all.)
