Muslims, especially in France, have nothing to apologize for. This does not mean they shouldn’t take a stance and condemn these acts of violence. But they should not apologize.
Muslim organisations and scholars around the world have condemned the terrorist attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo. Commentators see the attack as an assault on modern Islam and criticise right-wing populists for trying to capitalise on the event.
UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage has blamed “multiculturalism” and “uncontrolled immigration” in Europe for Wednesday’s (7 January) deadly attacks on the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the leaders of Al-Qaeda, equated ‘acts of slander’ to the bombing of villages and killing of innocent Muslims, evoking similar notions of ‘defence’ and ‘vengeance’.
Charlie Hebdo was about more than its fiercely satirical cartoons. It changed the French media and legal landscape forever and was instrumental in the struggle to protect hard-hitting investigative reporting.
Anti-immigrant groups in Germany seized on Wednesday’s deadly attack in Paris, with leaders of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and nationalist PEGIDA movement saying it showed the threat of Islamist violence.
Serbian citizens have a more positive attitude toward Russia than toward the EU, but they would prefer to see their children live in the EU, according to a recent poll by Ipsos Strategic Marketing for the Beta News Agency. EurActiv Serbia reports.
After a joint meeting between representatives from the Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the anti-Islamist Pegida movement, the two groups seem to have found common ground. EurActiv Germany reports.
There was much hope in the international community that the Hague war-crimes tribunal on former Yugoslavia, allied to domestic proceedings, could point the region to a reconciled future. It was not to be.
Struggling to uphold human dignity: bas-relief on the wall of the tribunal in The Hague. Flickr / keeps. Some rights reserved.
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