‘Je Suis Charlie’: So Are You.

Think about it.

You dropped your kid to the school, came to work, had your morning coffee. Another day.

You chatted with your colleague on how shitty the weather is, had some snacks and returned to work. You are waiting for lunch time to come.

Suddenly 3 men with masks storm into a building, shouting and taunting. You do not understand what is happening, it is all happening so fast.

They divide men and women, screaming for names. You hear the first shot before you know it, and you see a dead body. You start hearing other shots.

You close your eyes and wait for it to come.

You open your eyes and they are gone.

So does your spirit with it…

———

We all know what happened on 8th of January 2015 in Paris. Three gunmen busted the building of Charlie Hebdo, a famous weekly satirical magazine, killing 12 people, 2 of them being police officers.

We have all watched the footage, where one of the shooters approach to a wounded police officer, shooting him without remorse.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11331902/Charlie-Hebdo-attack-Frances-worst-terrorist-attack-in-a-generation-leaves-12-dead.html

The alleged victims are French citizens, of Muslim origin. Being that, the main reason behind the attack is argued as the caricatures drawn about Islam in the previous covers of the magazine (at 2012), that many Islam groups commented as ‘provocative’ and even as ‘blasphemy’.

For other ‘controversial’ covers of Charlie Hebdo, you can click on the link below:

http://www.ibtimes.com/charlie-hebdo-attack-prophet-muhammad-cartoons-may-have-caused-paris-magazine-1775898

 

As a result, this horrible incident happened, where 3 armed men held a planned attack to the headquarters of the magazine in Paris, costing the life of 12 innocent people.

The attack is cowardly, and has nothing to do with the core fundamentals of any religion. It is done by hypocrites, who simply use religion to their advantage and provoke people, both from their ‘religion’ and other religions.

This is not the only incident that has happened as a result of satirical images of Muslim figures vs the extreme reaction from some Islam groups.

Here is a timeline of the events happening, starting from the first satirical cartoons against Islam in 2005 by Charlie Hebdo’s Danish counterpart magazine, Jyllands-Posten.

http://www.nbcnews.com/watch/nbcnews-com/before-the-attack-a-timeline-of-the-danish-muhammad-cartoons-381358147541

One should also understand that magazine like Charlie Hebdo is not only creating satirical images against Islam. They simply mock religion or any cult idea itself, and any major representative of it, regardless that is Christianity, or Judaism or Islam.

We do not see any extremist Christian groups or Jewish groups reacting against such satires. Unfortunately, it is generally the Muslim extremist groups that reacts to such events with aggression.

However,

1- The attackers do not necessarily have to from an extremist Muslim group. The perpetrators can be hired by any group from any background, which used Islam as a scapegoat.

2- Even if has been prepared by an Islamist group, the actions of these people do not represent the majority of Muslims, nor should it.

As a conclusion, the main idea of this article is:

As the event itself, its aftermath also carries importance. Everybody with common sense understands that no kind of satire, regardless considered blasphemy or not, is a reason take anybody’s life.

Another important point is, regardless what the background of the attackers are, we should avoid a major mistake that we tend to do after each incident; to generalize.

This attack and its effects are harmful to everybody, regardless of religion or background. Just because the attackers were of Muslim origin, this does not mean Muslims are to blame, as it would be the same if the attackers were of any other background. We should not relive 9/11 again, where many innocent Arabs had to hide for their lives.

These tragedies have happened throughout the history and will continue to happen, unfortunately. This time it hit France, and became one of the worst terrorist attacks in the country’s history.

What matters now is how we reach to this event and to make sure that such incidents do not happen so easily in the future(as in people bearing arms so easily etc…).

But now there is one other thing to do, and that is to mourn for the 12 lives lost and to condemn this action in anyway we can.

Rest in Peace Stephen, Jean, Georges, Bernard, Philippe, Bernard, Elsa, Mustapha, Michel, Frederic, Ahmed and France.