{"id":19639,"date":"2015-01-11T02:36:26","date_gmt":"2015-01-11T10:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=19639"},"modified":"2015-01-11T02:36:26","modified_gmt":"2015-01-11T10:36:26","slug":"i-am-not-charlie-hebdo-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/11\/i-am-not-charlie-hebdo-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"“I am not Charlie Hebdo” (part II)"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Part I here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Again, this is the opinion of a friend who wishes to remain anonymous. The following is not by me.<\/p>\n

—–begin anon message, part II—–<\/p>\n

I am not Charlie Hebdo, because I know that free speech is a lie. The Constitution is a dead letter, and I am a coward.<\/p>\n

Charlie Hebdo published offensive speech that was found by a court of law to be worthy of protection. The speakers were killed.<\/p>\n

Anwar al-Awlaki published offensive speech, and was killed. He was denied a day in court, and simply murdered.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to be killed. I want to work for peace, but I\u2019m not going to stick my head up and invite extremely well-armed people to shoot at me, no matter what costume they wear.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I am not alone. Scott Greenfield has noticed<\/a>: <\/p>\n

People died because of this. Fanatics were outraged because of the content of its expression, and killed them. Many are outraged at the violence, but too fearful of publishing it lest some fanatic be outraged and do the same to them.<\/p>\n

They say they want free expression, but they refuse to take any personal risk for it. Let Charlie Hebdo take the risk. Let the people at Charlie Hebdo die. They will weep over their deaths, but they won\u2019t show the courage to stand up against the murders. Who?<\/p>\n

As for the present day, CNN, NYT, AP, NBC, ABC, the BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, and the CBC, will *not* be running Charlie-Hebdo cartoons.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

when you demand that others be silenced at the end of a gun, whether a fanatic\u2019s or a cop\u2019s enforcing laws you demand to criminalize expression that offends you, you are no different than the fanatics.<\/p>\n

Christopher Hitchens saw this clearly when, in 2006, he wrote:<\/p>\n

I went on Crossfire at one point, to debate some spokesman for outraged faith, and said that we on our side would happily debate the propriety of using holy writ for literary and artistic purposes. But that we would not exchange a word until the person on the other side of the podium had put away his gun.<\/p>\n

There can be no negotiation under duress or under the threat of blackmail and assassination. And civil society means that free expression trumps the emotions of anyone to whom free expression might be inconvenient.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But the American government, at federal, state, and local levels, will never put away its gun. If they don\u2019t like what you say, they will kill you. Whether it’s fiery sermons that scare the bejesus out of CIA spooks, a Facebook post that anyone dislikes enough to report, or some kid sassing a cop, death is too often the result.<\/p>\n

Police around the world, including American and European governments, openly monitor social media<\/a> for \u201coffensive\u201d speech.<\/p>\n

There is no free speech, and defending the right is a fool\u2019s game. Speech has consequences, as it should, but the gloves are off, the chains have been broken, and the U.S. government will kill me, if anything I do or say annoys them. The consequence for them will be zero. I will be dead.<\/p>\n

Given this state of affairs, I cannot agree with demands that the Muslim community police itself. <\/p>\n

The men who murdered the artists and editors of Charlie Hebdo are criminals. Madmen. Nothing can excuse what they did. Nothing justifies this slaughter.<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t take a lot of thought to understand the reasons, the causes, for this atrocity. Not all causes; we will never know the full tapestry of the lives that resulted in the creation of 3 (or more) madmen determined to slaughter cartoonists. But we can know some of their reasons.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll say this at least three times, knowing full well the point will be lost on most readers: Nothing excuses what they did. The point I will attempt to make is that there can be responsibility, even though that does not excuse the actions of madmen.<\/p>\n

Where did these madmen come from? How is it that there is population of crazies willing, organized, and able to plan and execute such a monstrous crime?<\/p>\n

Claire and others make the point that the Islamic community must ultimately deal with the culture of death and destruction that produces and enables these criminals. But why does that culture exist?<\/p>\n

The truth is that the American government, supported and elected by the American people, has been slaughtering Muslims for over 60 years. Greenwald quoted al-Awlaki\u2019s core message:<\/p>\n

For decades, the U.S. Government has been engaging in violence and otherwise interfering in the Muslim world. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslim men, women and children have died as a result. There is no end in sight to this American assault on the Muslim world and those of its client states. Therefore, it is not only the right, but the duty, of Muslims to engage in violence against Americans as a means of self-defense and to deter further violence against Muslims. That is the only available means for fighting back against the world\u2019s greatest military superpower. The only alternative is continuing passive submission to this onslaught of violence aimed at Muslims.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the past 15 years one would be hard pressed to identify a single week where there were not multiple innocent men, women, and children maimed and killed by American bombs, American fighters and gunships, American drones. Many, in fact most of the dead where just as innocent as the cartoonists. Few had expressed opinions that were so offensive as to give them any reason to fear for their lives. But they are just as dead.<\/p>\n

When you target and attack an entire populace for decades, it changes that culture. It creates an environment where hatred and madness can fester and grow. Again, that does not excuse the madness, but it does help to explain it. <\/p>\n

Ron Paul made this point in the presidential \u201cdebates\u201d when he countered Rudy G\u2019s simplistic nonsense that \u201cthey hate us for our freedoms.\u201d The 9\/11 attackers were created and motivated by hatred fed from decades of murder and oppression by the American government. Even the 9\/11 Commission understood this point, and included it in their report. Yet Ron Paul was reviled and mocked for \u201cblaming America.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are many peacekeepers in the billion-strong practitioners of the Muslim faith. But their job is made immeasurably more difficult, probably impossible, when performed under a constant rain of bombs, when speaking to people who live under the fear of constantly circling drones that spew hellfire at wedding parties and funerals. Peacekeeping is a hard sell to a man who has buried his wife and children and sifted the ashes of his home.<\/p>\n

If Americans truly want peace, they must give the peacemakers a chance to do their work. That means halting the constant murder and maiming. It means allowing those peacemakers, governments, courts, and laws the opportunity to solve their own problems. It means halting enormous flows of military and financial aid to grotesquely oppressive governments.<\/p>\n

Americans love to talk about free speech, and many will repeat that the cartoonists did not deserve to die for their offensive speech. But there is deep hypocrisy here. <\/p>\n

Let us remove the giant beam from our own eye before we criticize the motes in Muslim eyes. Let us stop bombing them, starving them, caging them, and killing them. Leave them alone for at least as long as we have been raining hellfire upon them. Then, and only then, can there be any legitimate criticism of Muslim peacekeepers. Perhaps by then, we\u2019ll have raised up a few of our own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Part I here) Again, this is the opinion of a friend who wishes to remain anonymous. The following is not by me. —–begin anon message, part II—– I am not Charlie Hebdo, because I know that free speech is a lie. The Constitution is a dead letter, and I am a coward. Charlie Hebdo published offensive speech that was found by a court of law to be worthy of protection. The speakers were killed. Anwar al-Awlaki published offensive speech, and was killed. He was denied a day in court, and simply murdered. I don\u2019t want to be killed. I want<\/p>\n

Continue reading“I am not Charlie Hebdo” (part II)<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,23,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-speech","category-thuggery-and-bad-law","category-war","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}