Posted on 01/08/2015 4:30:12 PM PST by Colofornian
When masked gunmen with assault rifles killed at least 12 people Wednesday in Paris in the offices of satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, all eyes were on al Qaeda, which had added the magazine's editor, Stéphane "Charb" Charbonnier, to its hit list in 2009 for covers depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
But the magazine, launched in 1969, has been an equal-opportunity offender, skewering celebrities, the French police, and Catholic and Jewish as well as Muslim figures. "Above all," Charbonnier, the editor since 2009, told Reuters in 2012, "it is a secular and atheist newspaper."
In other words, the publication's enemies could include politicians, extremist nationalist groups and non-Muslim religious groups.
Charlie Hebdo's New Year's Eve cover showed French President François Hollande being humped by a dog, and on Dec. 20, it published a cartoon of the Virgin Mary giving birth to a pig-nosed Jesus, reported NBC.
"Police would be shown holding the dripping heads of immigrants; there would be masturbating nuns, popes wearing condoms — anything to make a point," reports the BBC.
With the news of Michael Jackson’s death in 2009, Charlie Hebdo's cover featured him as a skeleton wearing a black wig, with the caption “Michael Jackson est enfin blanc" ("Michael Jackson is finally white"), referencing controversial rumors that the pop superstar had been bleaching his skin.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
Headline as depicted is a very slight edit of two words due to space (character limitation) not allowing all words:
Original headline: Charlie Hebdo's Most Controversial Covers: French Satirical Magazine Was An Equal-Opportunity Offender (So the words "Was An" were snipped)
(The last word -- "Offender" -- could have been cut instead to fit most of the headline in...)
From the article:
...the magazine, launched in 1969, has been an equal-opportunity offender, skewering celebrities, the French police, and Catholic and Jewish as well as Muslim figures. "Above all," Charbonnier, the editor since 2009, told Reuters in 2012, "it is a secular and atheist newspaper." In other words, the publication's enemies could include politicians, extremist nationalist groups and non-Muslim religious groups. Charlie Hebdo's New Year's Eve cover showed French President François Hollande being humped by a dog, and on Dec. 20, it published a cartoon of the Virgin Mary giving birth to a pig-nosed Jesus, reported NBC. "Police would be shown holding the dripping heads of immigrants; there would be masturbating nuns, popes wearing condoms — anything to make a point," reports the BBC...
So...18 days after depicting Jesus as "pig-nosed" on its cover, sounds to me like a few of the Hebdo people responsible for that cover may have actually met said Jesus -- and found out He wasn't so "pig-nosed," after all.
Does that cover or ANYTHING satired about Islam, Judaism, or Roman Catholicism justify the manner of their deaths -- or their associates? (Without equivocating, no!)
And we shouldn't provide "moral cover" to these rampaging Muslim extremists by suggesting such a thing.
In trying to understand Bill Donohue's worldview for a moment, I had to at least ask this question of fellow Freepers:
Can we play the blame-game if somebody has something to the effect of the following thought roam thru their head:
"Does the God who protects every one of us EVER let down a hedge of said protection for reasons only or primarily known to Him?"
IoW, with Satan and his minions warring against us daily, how many of us would already be "toast" were it not for God's daily gracious protection? And...are there things some of us do that ever prompts Him to remove that daily protection?
I suppose, at least some of the above content produced by Charlie Hebdo perhaps explains what riled-up Bill Donohue of the Catholic League --
-- who is now seemingly and overwhelmingly being journalistically and social media castigated for having engaged in moral equivalency...saying that we shouldn't...
..."tolerate the kind of intolerance that provoked this violent reaction"
...-- which comes across as if the so-called "provocateurs" themselves somehow invited (Donohue uses the word "provoked") such a "violent" (massacre) response.
So...to weigh in on any of this comment here -- and on these two OTHER Donohue threads on FR:
Catholic League president says ‘Muslims are right to be angry’; Charlie Hebdo's publisher played…
Bill Donohue's Moral Equivalence (catholic Caucus)
Why do they say “was an” as though this incident put them out of business?
Good question.
Yes. it was definitely equal opportunity.The cartoons of Catholics were extremely gross, but who cares?
The Church isn’t based on the opinions of Mad Magazine style cartoonists, even expressed in a format much grosser and cruder than that of Mad, and if I lived in France, I’d never buy it.
But that doesn’t matter to me. Why the heck are “jihadis” inflamed by such a trivial cause?
It wasn’t clear at the time of writing whether the terrorists had killed off what be needed to keep Hebdo a going concern. Maybe.
But it appears what is left is going to come right back out of that bloody corner, swinging their admittedly juvenile jabs.
They were and probably will continue to be an equal opportunity offender, their whole mission to jab at any sacred cow they see. Now will they ever jab at atheists? That would be a test of sincerity.
One of the first anti- Christian cartoons is the Alexamenos graffito.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito
I’ve seen some positively vicious anti-Catholic stuff in the past, even some anti-Protestant stuff.
Who can forget the anti-Christian cartoons Larry Flint used to have in his HUSTLER magazine after he got shot.
CHARLIE HEBDO PERVERTS FREEDOM [Catholic League's ill-timed diatribe vs. Charlie Hebdo]
It’s an interesting look into their rage. They think that God has put them up to being the world religious police.
Christianity is so contrasting to that. It’s based on faith and trust in Jesus and doesn’t need any jihads or fatwas. Just speak up and share the gospel, whenever and however you can. As Francis of Assisi put it, “if necessary use words.” Hebdo cannot put out that kind of faith any more than a lunatic could extinguish the sun by scribbling “darkness” all over the walls of his room.
WHY MUSLIMS ARE VIOLENT
This is pretty straight forward folks. There are peaceful Muslims, but there is no such thing as peaceful Islam. Violence is not an aberration in Islam—it is DOCTRINE. Dozens of passages in the Quran exhort Muslims to hate or kill or terrorize infidels (non-Muslims) wherever they find them. For examples, see Suras 2:190-193, 2:216, 2:244, 3:56, 3:142, 3:151, 4:56, 4:74 (beheading), 4:76, 4:84, 4:89, 4:91, 4:95, 4:104, 5:51, 5:32-38, 7:96-99, 8:12-15 (beheading), 8:39, 8:57-60, 8:65-67, 9:5, 9:14, 9:20-30, 9:38-41, 9:73, 9:88, 9:111, 9:123, 17:16, 18:65-81, 21:44, 22:18-22, 25:52, 33:60-62, 47:3-4 (beheading), 47:35, 48:16-17, 48:29, 61:4, and 66:8-12. These are the passages that jihadists quote in defense of their horrible atrocities. Unlike the Old Testament, violence in the Quran is mostly open-ended, that is, not restrained by the historical context of the surrounding events.
While there are passages that Muslims point to that might suggest peaceful solutions (Suras 2:190, 2:256, 5:8, 5:28, 5:32, 8:61, 29:46, 41:34, 109:6), these are overwhelmed by the violent ones. Indeed, the peaceful passages were abrogated, i.e. superseded, by the violent ones—because the violent ones were written later, after Muhammad’s move to Medina (from Mecca). Anyone who wants to commit acts of violence has perfect justification for doing so from the Quran. There is nothing in the Quran comparable to Jesus’ teachings to “turn the other cheek” and to “love your neighbor.”
You can look these passages up for yourself. Below is a site that has three translations of the Quran side-by-side. (Note: English translators of the Quran sometimes try to soften the true Arabic meaning of some of these passages. For example, to “fight” really means to kill in Arabic.)
http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran
In addition to the Quran are the hadiths. These are collections of sayings and actions of Muhammad. Indeed, Muhammad was one of the most violent men in history, setting the example for all Muslims to follow. See this link:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/quran/023-violence.htm
For more information, see our Faith Facts article:
http://www.faithfacts.org/world-religions-and-theology/christianity-vs.-islam
(If you like our site, tell your friends about us.)
I didn’t know about that Alexamenos graffito — thank you for that information
The picture is not of mohammad but of his son-in-law Hussein (or grandson Ali)
This is a war, not a polite debating society. If we play by polite debating society rules, we will wind up dead.
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