Politics can help to overcome terrorism | Letters | World news | The GuardianPolitics can help to overcome terrorism | Letters | World news | The Guardian










Close






Skip to main content

 









sign in








subscribe









search




jobs






more


from the guardian:


jobs


change edition:



switch to the UK edition


switch to the AU edition







US edition




switch to the UK edition




switch to the Australia edition













The Guardian


Winner of the Pulitzer prize











home


›
world


›
europe




americas


asia


middle east


africa


australia


UK










home




US




world
selected




opinion




sports




soccer




tech




arts




lifestyle




fashion




business




money




travel




environment







browse all sections
close







 











Charlie Hebdo attack



Politics can help to overcome terrorism

















A Muslim man holds a placard reading 'Not in my name', during a gathering in Saint-Etienne, eastern France, on 9 January 2015. Photograph: Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AFP/Getty Images





Sunday 11 January 2015 15.26 EST







Share on Facebook







Share on Twitter







Share via Email







Share on LinkedIn







Share on Google+







Share on WhatsApp
















Your editorial writers and commentators and most of your correspondents (9, 10 January) wring their hands in impotence over the Islamist massacre in Paris. In fact, there is a great deal citizens of the rich countries can do to combat Islamic fundamentalism. First, the western powers should withdraw politically and militarily from the Middle East. Every western intevention for the past 150 years has served to strengthen fundamentalist Islam. In particular, they should immediately cut military and political collaboration with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, which are the principal backers of Isis and Wahhabism (whatever their recent protestations). Second, the people of the western countries should give every support we can to the brave and beleaguered secular and democratic political currents in “the Muslim world”, such as the Labour party of Pakistan and the trade unions in Iraq and Egypt.
Third, in Britain, we should be campaigning for state schooling which is completely secular, depriving the Church of England and the Catholic church as well as other smaller churches of their anachronistic control of state schools. This is the medieval and barbaric hangover that should concern us. Parents have (limited) rights to impose their religion on their chilrden, but a democratic state has no business indoctrinating children in any religion.Please stop wringing your hands and get involved in politics that can really change things.Jamie Gough Sheffield
• I was disturbed by the letters in Friday’s Guardian. The responses made me ashamed to be a Guardian reader. Rather than condemning the killings, almost all played them down, tried to excuse them, or suggested the victims had somehow brought them on themselves. What’s happened to us? Have the past 15 years been so bloody that some people have run out of sympathy, and have none left for innocent cartoonists being gunned down in cold blood?Alasdair MurrayRichmond upon Thames, Surrey
• Some of your correspondents have argued that the right to free speech must be tempered by the avoidance of offence. Whilst I applaud the humane values underlying this claim, I must disagree. There is not – and never could be – any universal definition of what is offensive. we all have our own internal calibration of what offends; I cannot know what you think or might feel and so any stricture that bars me from saying something offensive will inevitably fuel a creeping self-censorship which is the antithesis of freedom of speech.
To live in a free society is to risk being offended. We can complain; we can retaliate; and we can shout aloud our discomfort. What we cannot do is shoot those who offend us. Je suis Charlie.Kath ChecklandHope Valley, Derbyshire
• Freedom of speech is a relative concept already limited by legislation. Libel, slander and incitement to racial hatred are crimes, as is denial of the Holocaust in Germany. Perhaps we should discuss whether figurative representation of Muhammad should be banned in the interests of public safety and social harmony, while continuing to tolerate satire of religion or any other belief or ideology. Such a limitation would hardly constitute a crippling assault on values that most of us hold dear, but might assuage concerns of many who are offended by images of the prophet.Simon SweeneyYork
• Your editorial (9 January), which defends the decision to not publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons by appealing to the faulty logic underlying the calls to publish them as a matter of freedom of speech, is misguided. The cartoons have now become part of a news story and for that reason alone should be published. It is the responsibility of a media organisation to keep its users well-informed so they can form their own opinions on these issues. We should not have to search for this information elsewhere. David LobinaLondon
• Has the Guardian taken all leave of its senses in donating £100,000 to Charlie Hebdo? The “war on terror” is fought on two fronts. One is the hard war in the form of bombs and tanks. The other is the soft war in the form of the ideological demonisation of Islam. Charlie Hebdo quite consciously played its part in the soft war. It is no Private Eye. And the claim it is left is a dubious one. For when it comes to Islam many parts of the French left have a shabby record, from the way the French Communist party opposed Algerian independence onwards. While the killings have to be opposed, is it any wonder that when petrol is poured on the raging fires of Muslim-baiting some people are liable to be burnt? By donating this money to a journal that the Guardian itself would condemn if its so-called satire were directed against Judaism, it seems to have learnt nothing.John Curtis Ipswich, Suffolk 
• I too want to resist the language of “war” (Tariq Ramadan, 10 January), whether metaphorically or literally meant, and whether it refers to a fight against politically motivated killings, against a particular religion and its adherents, or against terrorism as a phenomenon. Safety and human rights cannot be protected by violent hostility. They can come only from the building of understanding and respect, locally and globally. It will be hard to escape the dynamic of spiralling action and reaction but it must be done. We need the language of wisdom and kindness, not the language of war.Diana FrancisBath
• Watching the Unity March of 1 million-plus people in Paris on Sunday, it reminded me of the Iraq anti-war march of up to 2 million people in London and 15 millon people in 800 cities around the world on 15 Februrary 2003. Would the march in Paris would have been necessary if the earlier march had been listened to?Chris HoldenLondon



Topics



Charlie Hebdo attack




Press freedom




France




Europe




Islam



More…



Religion




Faith schools




Freedom of speech








Share on Facebook







Share on Twitter







Share via Email







Share on LinkedIn







Share on Google+







Share on WhatsApp



















 






more on this story














Cherif Kouachi during 2008 terror trial: 'I've been set up' - video

File footage of one of the Paris gunmen, Cherif Kouachi, arriving at court in 2008 on charges of helping to funnel fighters to Iraq's insurgency



Published: 13 Jan 2015




Cherif Kouachi during 2008 terror trial: 'I've been set up' - video












Analysis Charlie Hebdo attackers: born, raised and radicalised in Paris

The radicalisation of the Kouachi brothers began in a picturesque park in the capital while Amédy Coulibaly took the first steps towards terrorism in prison, but what the three had in common was growing up on the margins of French society



Published: 12 Jan 2015




Charlie Hebdo attackers: born, raised and radicalised in Paris












Paris shootings: investigation launched into where gunmen got GoPro cameras

Officials try to pinpoint when and where cameras found in possession of Kouachi brothers and Amédy Coulibaly were obtained



Published: 12 Jan 2015




Paris shootings: investigation launched into where gunmen got GoPro cameras












Paris attacks: 10,000 troops deployed as France hunts for accomplices

Mobilisation of 10,000 troops to guard potentially vulnerable locations comes as prime minister warns that ‘threat still present’



Published: 12 Jan 2015




Paris attacks: 10,000 troops deployed as France hunts for accomplices














Paris shootings: Jewish school ‘likely target’ of gunman Coulibaly




Published: 12 Jan 2015




Paris shootings: Jewish school ‘likely target’ of gunman Coulibaly








Analysis Mentor of Charlie Hebdo gunmen has been UK-based




Published: 11 Jan 2015




Mentor of Charlie Hebdo gunmen has been UK-based








Paris gunman Amedy Coulibaly declared allegiance to Isis




Published: 11 Jan 2015




Paris gunman Amedy Coulibaly declared allegiance to Isis








Charlie Hebdo: a letter to my British friends

Olivier Tonneau




Published: 13 Jan 2015




Charlie Hebdo: a letter to my British friends
















popular












 








The Guardian






back to top














home




US




world
selected




opinion




sports




soccer




tech




arts




lifestyle




fashion




business




money




travel




environment







all sections
close







home




US




world
selected




UK




europe




americas




asia




middle east




africa




australia






opinion




sports




soccer




MLS




NFL




MLB




NBA




NHL






soccer




live scores




tables




competitions




results




fixtures




clubs






tech




games






arts




movies




tv & radio




music




books




art & design




stage




classical






lifestyle




food




health




love & sex




family




women




home & garden






fashion




business




markets




companies






money




travel




USA




europe




UK






environment




development




cities






science




media




crosswords




video











World




›
Charlie Hebdo attack








jobs

subscribe
all topics
all contributors

info and resources

contact us

feedback

complaints & corrections
terms & conditions
privacy policy
cookie policy
securedrop


© 2015 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.






















 
