About The Murders in France

Progress continues.

But I'm still not going to discuss it. As most people reading this are likely already aware, a very small group of terrorists have gone on a murder spree in France, targeting satirists at Charlie Hebdo. If you were not aware of the details, that link will bring you to quite a few.

Said terrorists were targeting the publication for printing offensive comics depicting the Prophet of Islam, Mohammed.

There has been much talk about how inexcusable it is to murder over cartoons, but there is a question I have not heard asked often.

How did they know it was Mohammed that was depicted?

As maybe depicted here?

Is there no one else living or dead of Islamic faith that is named Mohammed? Why is it the terrorists felt so certain that these were sufficiently accurate depictions of The Prophet to get angry over? Much less kill anyone.

Is this Mohammed? Did the Prophet habitually wear lit explosive cannonballs as a hat and have a mustache that was 50% nosehair?

These, while likely closer to resembling Mohammed than most church icons of Jesus are likely to resemble Jesus-

The Lamb of God has been depicted for a very long time as improbably hippy-ish and Caucasian-looking for a middle-eastern Jewish man.

-are virtually certain to be unrecognizable by anyone who knew The Prophet Mohammed personally.

So, even if you are inclined to, as a Muslim, get really upset over depictions of Mohammed- you really have very little grounds to do so when absolutely no one besides God Himself knows what he actually looked like in any meaningful way. Just a little food for thought.

Mohammed?

 Meanwhile, while all the world stands in solidarity behind the slain cartoonists and satirists, there is a certain reluctance to bring up and even celebrate their work beyond making a vaguely related cartoon and to say "Je Suis Charlie."

This is a mistake, because while it shows sympathy in most cases it hardly stresses defiance. There is, it would seem, a bit of a whiff of fear in the air. That, I would warn people, is far more dangerous than an infinite number of offensive cartoons.

I doff the hat I never wear to France and the fallen Satirists of Charlie Hebdo, offer my sincerest sympathies to their families and surviving coworkers, and encourage all the world to be at least as brave as the French.

"What I'm about to say is maybe a little pompous, but I'd rather die standing than live on my knees." -Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnier 

And to all Muslims, my sympathies do go to those of you who have suffered retaliation from rage-blinded idiots, or who will suffer such. While such instances are likewise unacceptable, the best thing you can do is loudly denounce these people who are so arrogant and bloody minded that they would kill in the name of your faith- over cartoons.

In their zealotry, it is you they hurt most.

Well, after the people they murdered. I mean, they CLEARLY were hurt a fair bit more.

Still, they're not helping you either.

Progress continues.