Apologies and condemnation

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Predictably, the fervor for free-speech didn’t last past the march in Paris and the politicians are back to calling for less freedom and more snooping and certain elements of the press saying we’re all to blame, it had nothing to do with Islam, and worrying about a back lash from the “far right”. In all of the column inches written so far, few have touched on who really needs to apologise for the attacks – and apologies are called for. Sadly, the people who need to apologise for not standing up for free speech and allowing attacks like this to go unchallenged lest they be called on their own hypocrisy were far too busy faking a photo shoot:

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Muslims and apologies

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No apology called for
As I may have mentioned before the recent attack on Charlie Hebdo is laying bare all sorts of double standards, not to mention the odd weasel word or two. The latest to cross my path was an article published by vice – titled “Internet Commenters: This Is Why I and Other Muslims Won’t Apologise for the Charlie Hebdo Attacks”. My friends have for some reason shared it as being an excellent article, with the (usually sound, though in this case I’d suggest reading the comments it’s informative) advice not to read the comments. Which has rather forced me to conclude either we are reading different articles or inhabit different realities.

The author quite rightly objects to being asked to apologise for something they didn’t do. However they are setting up the most flimsy of straw men. The quotes they use all ask why aren’t Muslims condemning the attacks, not apologising for them but condemning them. Now I realise that educational standards have fallen and both “apologise” and “condemn” are quite long words but really they are quite different. However having confused these two radically different concepts they go on to demonstrate exactly why people are asking where are the peaceful Muslim voices condemning the Charlie Hedbo attacks.

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A correction and a follow up

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100 lashes if you're not dying of laughter It's hard to be loved by idiots Any excuse will do A star is born

First the correction when writing my post yesterday about the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices I neglected to include any of the images that they had previously published that allegedly led to the attack. Please accept my apologies for this oversight. I’d rather not behave in as gutless a fashion as the mainstream British press, who unlike their European counterparts have all failed to reprint any of their cartoons on the front page, and only one (the Sun) ventured to publish some tamer cartoons on the inside pages. In the main they all preferred to splash with pictures of the attack thus giving more publicity to the attackers. At the time I’m writing this there are reports of further violence in France against both the police and allegedly against a mosque. These are as yet unconfirmed and I hope that they turn out to be false and that no further violence on either side occurs. Continue reading →

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