2 Responses to What Chris Hedges has to say about it all.

1. Iljas Baker says:

   January 14, 2015 at 4:49 am

   Salaam Ian:
   I’m not so sure Chris Hedges gets to “the truth” of the Charlie Hebdo attacks or other incidents involving so-called Islamist terrorists. Theories rarely are completely convincing when applied to individuals. Chris Hedges seems to be inspired by some version of conflict theory. If he’s correct in his analysis why is it only a small minority of Muslims in France that are involved? There seems to be important things going on in the lives of these attackers that need to be considered: They are I think by conventional standards not conventional Muslims and that is a distinction we Muslims are quick to make when we claim terrorists are not proper Muslims and don’t speak and act for us. Is there somethings about these individuals that predispose them to violence whether Muslims or not? The Qur’an doesn’t appear to me to cite social determinism as a cause of evil – it may be a factor, but doesn’t the Qur’an teach us to look deeper than this?

   Another thing: I find the fact that Charlie Hebdo fired someone for producing an anti-Semitic cartoon strange, not just evidence of bias. I first read about it in an article in the Guardian newspaper by Tariq Ramadan. But no one who mentions the story gives any details. It doesn’t seem likely that a Charlie Hebdo staffer who submitted a cartoon that was judged to be anti-semitic would be immediately sacked. Surely this isn’t true or there is more to the story than simply what is being presented by Tariq Ramadan and Chris Hedges.

   I am not unappreciative of the role of injustice, oppression and even Islamophobia but surely they are only part of an explanation of “Islamist” violence.

   Iljas

   Reply
2. matthewbain says:

   January 18, 2015 at 3:35 pm

   Thank you for sharing this article Ian. Please also read Media Lens if you get the chance:
   http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2015/783-charlie-hebdo-and-the-war-for-civilisation.html

   Reply

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