The Political Thread

[Theblazeuk]

This was done in the supposed name of Islam. As are many evil things.

[Frank]

FUCK FASCISM

[Hawkmumbler]

Religion is used as a smoke screen by evil people. Religion itself is a flawed way of life, but it's a necessary one for some.

[The Legendary Shark]

Who said it was done in the name of Islam? That sounds like jumping to conclusions to me. Even the Glass Tit news channels I get are all just calling them "gunmen" or "terrorists".
.

[Steve Green]

Both BBC and Sky are reporting that.

[ZenArcade]

Cowardly, murdering fucking vermin.

[Professor Bear]

Sky, maybe, but I still have an affection for the BBC.

[von Boom]

Cowards. Shooting unarmed people for any reason is a cowardly act and deplorable no matter how they try to dress it up.

[The Legendary Shark]

Amen. No matter who did it or why, murdering human beings is always wrong.

[Grugz]

some great "two fingers" to the terrorists

http://metro.co.uk/2015/01/07/15-powerful-cartoon-reactions-to-the-charlie-hebdo-shootings-in-paris-5013346/

[ZenArcade]

Shark you are so right, we are being shot at by a bunch of variant scumbags who proport to represent a one of the five or six major religions in the world (I don't for a moment think they do) yet at the same time our particular species of control merchants attempt (by act of parliament) to throw another lead lined halter over our collective neck. Z

[ZenArcade]

I guess my issue here is that we should stop going out into the world shooting poor people and turn our (intellectal) guns against the real enemy. I am incandescent with the attack on free speech in France. Z

[JayzusB.Christ]

When a doctrine drives its followers to do something as horrific as this, you know there's a serious problem with it.

I could be reading that wrong, but it seems just a tad Islamophobic

Fair enough,  it was a knee-jerk reaction. Frankly, though,  I'm tired of religiously-inspired atrocities and wish people would stop hurting each other using the imagined desires of some supernatural entity as an excuse.  On paper, at least,  I'm Catholic; I grew up in a Catholic society and still I abhor the Vatican for all the ways it has influenced and even instructed many followers to do horrible things.  Does that make me a catholophobe too?

And of course I know that these kinds of extremists are in a minority.  I know too that such people would probably find another form of extremist violence even if they had never been exposed to religion.  I know that the vast majority of Muslims are good people who have not been taught to murder. But I worry about whatever skewed version of Islam has been spread among bloodthirsty fanatics like these guys,  because it doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.

[Mabs]

As a Muslim, I condemn these atrocities outright.  No one has the right to lose their lives no matter what. I was never a fan of those cartoons, as they seemed like an attack on the already marginalised Muslim community in France. A lot of the cartoons bordered on racism and homophobia in my view. But as I stated, no one has the right to lose their lives over a cartoon. What I find annoying though, is the fact that as soon as there is an terrorist attack, all of the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world are held accountable. A lot of the sentiments being shared around social media is quite troubling, this 'us' against 'them' talk, and 'let's punish those vile Muslims even more by displaying the offending cartoons in plain sight'. Instead of unity, we are creating disunity . 

I hope those murdering bastards are caught, but more so,  I hope we see reason and not give in to hate.

[The Legendary Shark]

Well said, Muscleman.