Hey, I was hoping you could give me a bit of context for the new Charlie Hebdo cartoon? Or direct me to someone who wouldn't mind? The anglosphere is reacting really badly to it, but when I first saw it I thought, "oh, they're saying they don't blame Muslims for the attacks. they're trying to fend off the islamophobia." But it's hard to get any opinion out of US articles that isn't "look! they drew mohammed again! islamophobes!"
Hi! Thank you so much for asking! Thank you for being polite and curious. It doesn’t matter if, despite our explanations, you don’t agree with the french side of tumblr, you’re fully entitled of your freedom of thought. I’m just happy of your interest in what we have to say.About our culture of satire (and why CH isn’t racist) : 1- 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8
Here’s a huge post that covers a lot of things
Why we are not using the “race” concept
Nobody’s blaming the Muslims (but there are an awful lot of attacks on mosques since last week and we are very ashamed and upset by that. But neither us, the french side of Tumblr, or the medias, are blaming anybody else but the terrorists)
Lassana Bathily (this has nothing to do with social justice, but the guy is a hero, you should know about him)Here’s what we wrote on signs for the rally and what is now broadcast in Paris
Satire being used about the Charlie Hebdo eventsMy opinion about imperialism on Tumblr and SJW over the last few daysHow we feel about Tumblr’s reaction
There’s another point that I haven’t seen explained in english so far: French people love to talk and argue about absolutely everything. All the time. Sometimes, it’s annoying, but we love it, and we (almost) alway learn something form the debate. Maybe that comes from the Enlightenment age, I’m not sure, but nothing is to sacred that it can’t be discussed. So, of course, we also talk about religion. That culture of discussing religion is helped by two facts: we are a secular country, which mean our State won’t interfere in any way about religion. And since 1881, we don’t have a blasphemy law (and every religious representatives are happy about that). So as we grew up in a place where the State (or our society) won’t punish us for talking and having an opinion about religions. We’re talking about it as we do about any political party. I guess you could say that to us, religion is just a line of thought. But since we’re discussing it as we’re discussing everything else, we don’t feel like we’re attacking anyone when we’re criticizing a religion.
As for Charlie Hebdo, they were being as harsh on Catholicism and Judaism than they are about Islam. Really, they were making no exception. During the 90’s they were fustigating a lot on catholicism because of the pedophile priests scandal. But make no mistake: they are atheists, but they are defending everybody’s right to believe in what they want. With one exception: fundamentalists. Fanatics from any religion.And they were working for people to understand that terrorism has no religion.
As for the drawings of Mohammed, I made a post in french about blasphemy, someone said they would translate it, I’l send it to you if you’re still interested.
Those cartoonists were working for peace. They were working to end fanatism, rascism, homophobia, stupidity. They were making fun about everybody, french people as well as foreigners. They were mocking every religion, every single one.
We have laws to protect people from any kind of discrimination, Charlie had to go to trial 50 times since 1992, that’s one time every six months. On 12 occasions, they were up against nationalists. On 8 occasions, it was against catholics. And on 6 occasions, against muslims organisations.
Those who were unhappy with Charlie’s publications had the legal means to be heard, and they used it. 75% of the time, Charlie Hebdo was declare not guilty. They were convicted 9 times on 48 trials. And never for their comment on a religion. Moslty it was because they insulted someone.
They just wanted to make us laugh and think about ideas we take for granted, or about the news. The only people who won’t allow that are fanatics. Humour is a part of freedom of thoughts. If you don’t use your freedom, you’ll lose it. Charlie Hebdo were making the most of it.
I’m sorry if I’m being confusing with all those links and my ill-written explanation. And I'm not sure I've help you understand about the cartoons, so I'll ask other French people to help you, if you don't mind. Please ask any question who might have! :)
Again, thank you so much for being so open minded since it all started. It means a lot.
