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Gunmen Kill 12, Wound 7 At French Magazine HQ
An anonymous reader writes: A pair of gunmen have stormed the office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people and wounding seven more. The magazine had recently published a cartoon of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and witnesses say the gunmen shouted, "we have avenged the Prophet Muhammad," before leaving. "Four of the magazine's well-known cartoonists, including its editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier were reported among those killed, as well as at least two police officers. Mr Charbonnier, 47, had received death threats in the past and was living under police protection." The attackers engaged police in a gunfire outside the building, then fled in a car. At the time of this writing, they are still at large. Currently, the BBC has the most information out of English news outlets. French speakers can consult the headline at Le Monde for more current news.
Every magazine and newspaper in France should publish the offending cartoons on their front pages. Show these assholes that they wouldn't silenced with violence.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
So basic logic was legit 20 years ago, but now it's invalid?
You mean a subset of people who consider themselves to be part of a religion.
But only against those you choose to be intolerant again. And when you are intolerant, you express blanket intolerance. Great way to make enemies and end up like Europe.
Or it would make them feel oppressed and alienated, leading them to lend an ear to the extremists. Oh wait, this is exactly what is happening. You are your own worst enemy.
and what do you suggest we do? simply walk away and let them take over? I dont think we should have gone there to begin with, we should just let them kill each other. but its too late for that now. ISIS popped up because we left before the job was finished (again a job we never should have taken but we did, so we should finish it)
The big one is a peaceful resolution to Israel/Palestine.
Secondary, don't go overboard fighting terrorism. How do you suppose people here would react if Iran were dropping bombs in US suburbs to kill Christian terrorists, killing many civilians in the process? What if they invaded France for no good reason and sparked civil unrest killing 100,000+? I think terrorism drops signficantly if we simply stop fighting it so hard for a few years.
Thirdly, less support for Middle East dictators who happen to be pro-West. People don't like those who aid their suppressors.
Fourth, don't freak out about every foreign government that is identifiably Islamic. Muslim's aren't dumb, they notice the freakout the west has whenever they hear the word Islam, if you're treating someone like your enemy they're likely to do the same in reverse.
None of this is to say that terrorists are remotely justified, but for stuff like this it's best to think of people as existing on a bell curve where the left tail is complete pacifism and the right is terrorism. In the west the mean is closer to pacifist and the standard deviation is small, so our extremist groups tend to look more like the Westborough Baptist Church. But every aggravating action that occurs increases the standard deviation and pushes the mean further to the right, This creates more terrorists at the right hand tail.
The point is that any action that would make you angry if you were a Muslim is going to create more terrorists, so before we do something that would piss off a lot of people we really need to consider if it's worth it.
I stole this Sig