The American And European Discourse Around The Charlie Hebdo Shootings

Another major difference between Islam and Christianity is their Holy scriptures. Unlike Christians who read and obey the Holy Bible, Muslims have the Qur’an and teachings from Muhammad. The Qur’an states teachings and rules from God and the Hadith consists of teachings from Muhammad who is believed to be the last Holy messenger from God and is highly revered. While people from the

Nevertheless, speech or vernacular that is threatening or violent towards other citizens-or adversely and negatively affects the freedoms of others- can be restricted and enjoys no protection from the Bill of Rights. In the subsequent weeks after the Charlie Hebdo and Curtis Culwell shootings, both the FBI and Parisian police aggressively targeted, banned, and censored anti-Islamic speech or discourse in an attempt to stem future violence. While these reactions may be well-intended, it is imperative to remember that even speech that profoundly insults our personal values or is hateful to our ideals warrants the same protection as other speech solely because freedom of expression is inseparable: When one of us is denied this right, all of us are

It is very important to be aware that the media is capable of controlling the flow of information that citizens receive. Furthermore, much of the content suppressed in this country is for fear of retribution from others. When governments and other institutions suppress information, citizens are not able to address matters concerning their country, as well as around the globe. In ‘The Decline of American Press Freedom’ by Anne Applebaum, Applebaum explains a recent controversy with Yale University and the publishing of a contentious comic in a scholarly report on the global consequences of political comics. The comics in question were satirical in nature and displayed the Islamic prophet Muhammad in an offensive manner. In an aniconic religion where visual depiction of the prophet is inherently blasphemous, the Islamic response to these comics were violent. When an analysis of the comics and the cultural backlash was written, instead of publishing it, Yale University swept it under the rug for fear of offending Islamic extremists. Applebaum argues that if “Yale University Press refuses to publish [the comics], then that makes it much harder for anybody else to treat the cartoon controversy as a legitimate matter for scholarly and political debate” (Applebaum 640). By not allowing the publishing of this analysis, Yale University is censoring what the American populace have access to in terms of global controversy. The issue becomes trivialized because institutions fear retribution from extremist groups. Without these scholarly points of reference of this issue and others, it is difficult to have a serious conversations about the ramifications of political and religious satire. This leads to people remaining uneducated and ignorant of these serious issues, and liable to repeat these same actions that so sorely offended an extremist

September 11, 2001 is a date in history that changed the lives of people from all over the world and especially the lives of Americans. On this day nineteen militant men associated with al-Qaeda, an Islamic extremist group, hijacked four airplanes and carried out multiple suicide attacks on different locations in the United States. Two of the planes directly struck the World Trade Center located in New York City, one of the other two planes hit the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and the final plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania before it could reach its final destination. On this day, more than 3,000 people were killed including over 400 first responding police officers and firefighters. In recent years as people look back on that day it is remembered as a time when the country was joined together by grief and showed an overwhelming amount of comfort and support to the victims and their families; it was also a time of extreme national pride. People also remember that following the attacks the economy suffered tremendously, in addition, air traffic which makes up a portion of the economy was greatly disrupted, both of which created uncertainty about the security of the financial markets critical to the success of the United States. What most people do not remember is the immediate backlash and hostility the Muslim and Arab communities received following the attacks by both civilians and the media. This is a topic that has been largely ignored by the public and media’s

On the covers of newspapers and on the screens of many, the story of the Boston marathon hits the ground. Twenty six thousand eight hundred thirty nine people from all over the world came to run in this awe-inspiring marathon. Until the tragedy strikes right in their faces. The explosions, injuring scores of people, effected the lives of innocent civilians. Cheers were replaced with screams, sirens, and the first responders providing aide to the citizens. This was a brutal event just like the one on September 11, 2001. Instead of using seclusion towards political and economical reasons for events, the mass medias perceptive towards incidents involving the religion Islam has created the stereotypical thought in society in which we live in today.

The topic of this essay was one that seemed the most relevant at this given moment in time. Post 9/11, Western media became very critical of Islam and the portrayal of Muslims and the negative associations made with them has dramatically increased.

In the event of the terrorist attack on the newspaper Charlie Hebdo, instead of protesting or taking legal action some decided to kill innocent people to get revenge. It was religion based and when they started killing all those people, it made what they stood for look ludicrous. We are seeing this happen in our own country as well. I think about all of the shootings that have been arising and about innocent lives being taken, most of which have occurred recently because of a group of Islamists. This doesn’t mean that every person who is involved with the religion of Islam is that way, but it makes a lot of people skeptical and judgmental because that is what the media highlights, focusing on the fact that it is indeed about religion.

American Muslims are having their civil rights violated more and more and are constantly being discriminated against. Haddad says that “Post 9/11 American Muslims were linked to enemy others and were expected to prove their loyalty to the nation-state in ways other Americans were not expected to do. The trope of Muslims as enemies within lingers.” The national media still portrays American Muslims as enemies to the United States. These unquestioned beliefs about Muslims leads to Islamophobia and Said says “To most Americans, Islam is nothing but trouble. The use of the label Islam, to either explain or indiscriminately condemn Islam, becomes a form of attack.” Said goes on to say that “Islam is used to define a small portion of extremism instead of the billion Muslims

On January 7, 2015 at approximately 12 PM, brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi executed a premeditated shooting on the employees of Paris-based satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Within a span of a few minutes, the brothers had shot and killed eleven people as well as having injured eleven others. Once the attack on the cartoonists had been concluded, the brothers fled the facility and killed an officer while escaping to a stolen vehicle. The brothers identified themselves as having been belonged to the Yemen branch of Al-Qaeda. France quickly raised its terror alert and sent soldiers on a massive manhunt for the brothers. Soon after, on January 9, the men were discovered in a printing facility and exchanged bullets with police officers

September 11th holds many hard and upset feelings around the world today. The harsh actions of Muslim extremists unfortunately completely changed the way Muslims are treated, especially in the United States. These events, exacerbated islamophobia. Unfortunately, “the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, connect Muslims and Islam to terrorism within the geographical borders of the United States.” (Byng) Although it has been over a decade since the attack, many still feel racist and discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims. Muslims are the targeted minority in the United States, “the 9/11 terrorist attacks shifted the social and political context for Muslims in the United States. Terrorism within the geographical borders of the United States carried out by Muslims places an identity at the center of national and global politics.” (Byng) The blame of the horrible terrorist attacks, rather than be placed on terrorists or religious extremist, has been placed on Islam in America. After September 11th, hate crimes towards Muslims skyrocketed, “the most dramatic change noted by the report was a more than 1,600 percent increase in reported hate crimes against Muslims -- a jump from 28 hate incidents in 2000 to 481 last year.”

Many people can mostly likely recall learning about McCarthyism, the making of false accusations of treason without proof generally focusing on the topic of communism. However, over the years that fear of communism, also known as communism under the bed has mutated to an entirely different but similar beast, Muslim-under-the-bed paranoia. This paranoia expresses the large growing issue of intolerance against those who follow the religion of Islam. Over the years due to a series of unfortunate events the peaceful religion of Islam and its followers have faced discrimination, danger, and disrespect. Fifteen years, six months, and seventeen days ago a tragedy struck new york when four members of an Islamic terrorist group known as al-Qaeda flew a

The events of September 11th 2001 created dramatic changes in the lives of peoples all across the globe. The devastating aftermath of the attacks of that day is never ending in the lives of most people – especially those who were personally affected by the horrific acts of terrorism. Muslims, in particular, have had to experience the backlashes of the September 11th events. An already misunderstood and misrepresented group of people have, in addition, had to deal with incredible biases, bigotry, misdirected hate, and religious intolerance. Many Americans who, unjustly, attack the religion of Islam and its faithful followers are, in reality, very ignorant on the subject of Islam and the beliefs of

The biggest difference in Islam and Christianity is that Muslims don’t believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, which is the basic foundation of Christianity. Muslims believe that Jesus was a servant of God as well as a prophet. Muhammad is believed to be a prophet and a servant of God also; however, Muhammad is said to be the last prophet sent by God to guide humanity. On the contrary, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and is therefore viewed as God

The connection between Islam and terrorism was not intensified until the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center that pushed the Islamic faith into the national and international spotlight (Smith, 2013). As Smith (2013) articulated, “Many Americans who had never given Islam a second thought before 9/11 now had to figure out how to make sense of these events and relate to the faith tradition that ostensibly inspired them” (p. 1). One way in which people made sense of these events was through the media channels that influenced their overall opinions by shaping a framework of censored ideas (Yusof, Hassan, Hassan & Osman, 2013). In a survey conducted by Pew Forum (2012), 32% of people reported that their opinions of Muslims were greatly influenced by the media’s portrayal of Islam that depicted violent pictorials and fundamentalist Muslims. Such constant negative depiction is likely to lead to the inevitable—prejudice and hate crime. For instance, in 2002 alone there were approximately 481 hate crimes that were carried out against Muslims (Smith, 2013). Ever since the 9/11 attacks Muslim people have been the target of “suspicion, harassment and discrimination” (Talal, n.d., p. 9).

This survey reveals that the problem with the Islam faith is not racial: The Muslim people are welcomed, the Islam faith is not. The violence that has been perpetrated against America, whether executed or planned, has brought to fruition religious persecution not seen since the persecution of the Jews in W.W.II. This “trust no Arab” attitude has brought shame to the Constitutional intentions of freedom of religion intended by our forefathers, and has set religious tolerance back 200 years. Looking at media representation of Muslim Americans prior to 9-11, it shows religious diversity in America, depicting Muslim America as just another religious community seeking to advance and protect their interests, not unlike other Americans. After 9-11 the media portrayed representations of threat and fear, creating boundaries between Muslims and other Americans. Such depiction transforms the identity of Muslims and American religious pluralism (Byng, M. pg. 3).