The Saudis are by no means the only hypocrites. How many Leftists in the U.S. shouted “Je suis Charlie” and then applauded the defacing and destruction of the AFDI ads in San Francisco?
“‘Saudi Arabia says ‘I am Charlie’ but it is not’: Charlie Hebdo cartoonist attacks hypocrisy of leaders who marched in name of free speech but censor their press,” by Keiligh Baker, MailOnline, January 31, 2015:
A cartoonist who survived the Charlie Hebdo massacre has attacked the hypocrisy of world leaders who march in the name of free speech but censor their press.
The cartoonist Renald ‘Luz’ Luzier has given his first on-camera interview about the day of the massacre, how he missed death by minutes and criticised world leaders for hypocrisy over press freedoms.
Seventeen people, including journalists and police, were killed in three days of violence that began on January 7 when militants burst into Charlie Hebdo’s office during a regular editorial meeting and shot dead five of its leading cartoonists.
The filmed interview took place in his sniper-proof flat in Paris, and throughout the interview Luz becomes visibly more and more distressed.
Interviewed for Vice by reporter Milene Larsson, he said : ‘There are cartoonists in France who say “we can no longer draw things that could offend someone elsewhere in the world” – but if we take into account the positions and opinions of the whole world, we might as well tear up our drawings. It is over.’
He also reflected on the international movement of ‘Je Suis Charlie’ and criticised the hypocrisy of world leaders marching in the name of free speech while suppressing press rights in their own countries.
He said: ‘All of a sudden, Saudi Arabia says ‘I am Charlie’ but it is not.’…
rev g says
And no one seems to hear him….
cs says
The comments on the video are very interesting.
Angemon says
Ah, now you’re getting there.
ECAW says
Too true!
Je ne suis bleedin’ pas Charlie.
Oliver says
As I ( tried to- but never made it) to post.
NAT HENTOFF ( A WRITER-NOT SURE IF ALIVE OR DECEASED, NOW) WROTE FOR THE (NEW YORK CITY) VILLAGE VOICE AND WROTE A BOOK– FITS THIS
‘ FREE SPEECH FOR ME, BUT NOT FOR THEE”.
Nicu says
They are so right !
Look at Abbas’s smiling face during the staged March of the Politicians !
The next day Merkel stated , again : ” islam belongs to Europe ” …
Gary in Erko says
Everyone now has the day after copy of the souvenir issue of Charlie. They can go back to sleep. Nothing’s happening.
Arthur says
My French is no good. How do you spell it, again?
JE SUIS CHARLIE
OR
JE SUIS CHARLATAN
?
Arthur says
The origins of Charlie Hebdo (translates as the Charlie Weekly) are interesting (if Wikipedia is correct). The founding weekly “Hara-Kiri Hebdo” was banned by France after mocking the death of Charles de Gaulle. So they changed the name and kept publishing. Apparently, they were fans of Peanuts’ Charlie Brown, although maybe the name really reflected the topic that got them banned. So there is irony in French government leaders claiming to support the free speech of a publication the French government had originally banned.
Don McKellar says
The first decades of the 21st Century are marked by one overwhelming thing that wasn’t true in the 20th Century: today we have cowards for leaders and mainstream media.
Matthieu Baudin says
Don, you’re so right. A chunk of the 21st Century has already passed; it opened with the slaughter of 3,000 civilians on 9/11 and today we’re still marching on the same spot, through lack of courage and wilful ignorance by our political leadership. When your house is broken into, courage in self defence protects your family. This satirical rag was a local institution, who’s existence was absolutely no business of anyone outside of the country. This fact was recognised by a large swath of the French population; the political class by and large came along for the ride. The people understand courage; the gulf between their sentiment and the ‘wait and see’ intransigence of todays career politicians has grown alarmingly. Europe may be passing into another revolutionary phase born of a desire to resurrect modern civilised norms in daily life.
Lia Wissing says
“Islam belongs to Europe’ – Merkel. ‘The us belongs to Islam” – not Obama’s exact words.And they want the entire Middle East as well (Israel included)! We know they don’t care for anybody else. Don’t we either?
ECAW says
Talking of our leaders’ hypocrisy, has everyone seen these two pictures?
http://gatesofvienna.net/2015/01/who-exploited-the-victims-of-paris-frau-merkel/
Georg says
We cannot observe an art piece which shows ladies’ heels on prayer mats, yet a Muslim woman casually describes the Mayor of London as a terrorist? Yea, ok… The society we love[ed] isn’t rapidly crumbling or anything.
This is great piece- thanks for the link, Robert!
BARRY says
Nikita Khruschev was a Russian politician who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War.
Nikita Khruschev accurately described politicians in the following quote: “Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.”
Bill says
Islam is a plague on the world. It is completely incompatible with liberty, tolerance, progress, initiative, peace, the rule of law, equality under law, morality, public welfare, freedom….the political left is completely subservient to Islam. The hypocrisy extends to ALL of the political left. The political left is a scourge on all of us and is actively giving us over to the Muslims. Even with their mockery and criticism of Islam, Charlie Hebdo, being a product of the left, was in the long run facilitating Islamicist ideology, the very ideology that murdered them.
Leon Kushner says
Does anyone recall the international political cartoon contest that France won years ago? It depicted Israel’s then Prime Minister Sharon as a demonic nazi eating arab babies. When the cartoonist was asked why do they only draw nasty cartoons of leaders of Israel and none of any arab leaders, they responded: Because we know that if we draw despicable cartoons of Jews, nothing will happen to us but if we draw nasty cartoons of Muslims, we may be killed for it. I guess they finally got the message. The same message that Jews throughout the world and certainly in Israel have to deal with on an ongoing basis.