A letter to the left leaning in wake of Charlie Hebdo shootings of January 2015
Guest Post by HARSH KAPOOR
The January 2015 terror attack on the Paris satirical weekly and its gross misinterpretation by people of Left liberal sensibilities in India and much of the world.
We recently witnessed a devastating terror assault by fanatics who gunned down close to 200 children in a school in Peshawar. Was this a desperate cry of the dispossessed in Pakistan? I am glad that the various tiny fractions of the left in Pakistan stood up and condemned it openly, some in India also stood up for the first time. It provoked widespread shock and disdain.
But the terrorist assassination of 12 cartoonists, journalists and workers at Charlie Hebdo in Paris on 7 January 2015 has provoked very different reactions. Geographical location of the murder seems to drive this.
I am utterly astounded and shocked at the manner in which many in the left leaning and liberal circles in India have reacted to the devastating terror attack in Paris. Has a section of left gone mad? Why do they have to deflect a straight forward issue and start providing rationalisation for terror attacks from the Muslim fundamentalists. We are being given an endless spiel on French colonisation, the war for decolonization in Algeria, the exclusion of the so-called Muslim ‘community’ in France, the blowback for France’s foolish involvement in the recent wars in Libya and Syria and so on. The role of poor and dispossessed is being invoked.
( Read the full article here : http://www.sacw.net/article10438.html)
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
The following is taken from the full article :
“The killers of Charlie Hebdo grew up in areas where once there was a red belt of communist-run towns around Paris. Today the left, has pretty much ceded ground in these working class suburban towns. These are recruiting grounds for multiple forms of fascist and reactionary groups, armed with propaganda, satellite TV, hate-filled gospel and dress codes and moral conduct all blessed by ‘authentic’ religion and culture. Christian evangelical cults, Islamist preachers and the Far right xenophobes all promoting identity politics.”
Why?
The writer waffles on about the spinelessness of the ‘liberal left’, forgetting that these are the same people who are more comfortable fighting culture wars than economic exploitation. According to them social equality is more important than economic equality. For instance, we can see in the west that high gender equality can coexist with high economic inequality. Identity politics is a feature of postmodern politics. Political correctness, multiculturalism, ‘non polarisation’ in politics. You can get away with being a ruthless capitalist, as long as you make the right noises about gender,LGBT,race,etc. It is nothing more than a compensation for neoliberalism.
But now liberalism is in a crisis as it faces contradictory propositions.
Should you encourage multiculturalism and integration at risk of offending the native population? Or should you fight unilateral wars,impose surveillance and restrict liberties to defend democracy?
Everyone has recognised the causes for the attacks : Islamist ideology. But the writer is more bothered about the reaction of the liberal left. They are not much bothered about Islam as they are about liberalism. If they criticise CH they are contradicting one of the main pillars of a liberal society. If they defend CH they risk offending the precious ‘Other’.
The writer seems to think condemnation by a certain section of commentators will do the trick. How does he propose to combat islamism? Atleast those liberals are pointing towards social isolation.
Even so this discussion is more about the limits of liberalism than it is about Islam.
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The finest piece on the massacre at Charlie Hebdo. Thanks Harsh Kapoor.
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Critical irreverence is the quality of a highly evolved mind. Those who do not understand this will pull every excuse under the sun to suppress it, for what they cannot grasp is threatening to them. The Middle Eastern fiction of the Man-God is nothing more than a power-base for those making a business out of that concept. And, when this concept is cheaper than anything made in China or Bangladesh, given that its intoxication over the gullible mass is the only “Truth” that never needs to be proven without the opposition of reasonableness, its perpetuation is nothing but an extension of the very corrupt minds whose sole purpose is to keep building their bases with the clueless.Those who fail to uphold the spirit of Charlie Hebdo belong either to the clan of the corrupt minds, or to the sheepish fold that is entangled in their own web of utter helplessness of incapability and incompetency.
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thanks to the author for writing this…it takes courage and clarity of position to write this. its a big dilemma as captured by harsh kapoor; to speak on Islamic fundamentalism can be seen as anti islam and in indian context at this moment, it can also mean playing into the hands of rightwing hate politics. But despite this if there can be a concerted voice of this kind, may be then there can be some hope for tolerance and diversity.
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