Controversial French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is facing strong criticism for an editorial that blames Muslims for all the terrorist attacks including the ones in Brussels and Paris.
Days after 35 people were killed in Brussels, the newspaper has published the article under the headline, “How did we end up here?”
The article says that “the attacks are merely the visible part of a very large iceberg indeed. They are the last phase of a process of cowing and silencing long in motion and on the widest possible scale.”
It cites three examples of how ordinary Muslims are responsible in terror attacks like in Brussels.
The first one is about Tariq Ramadan, Swiss academic, philosopher and writer who teaches Islamic studies and publicly speaks about the faith, in an attempt to “dissuade people from criticizing his religion in any way.”
The second one is about a Muslim baker selling and promoting porkless sandwiches, who the magazine accuses of devoiding society from eating the kind of foods citizens have a right to eat.
The last one is about the Muslim woman who wears the veil, “guilty” because of the dislike people have towards criticizing her choice of headwear.
“From the bakery that forbids you to eat what you like, to the woman who forbids you to admit that you are troubled by her veil, we are submerged in guilt for permitting ourselves such thoughts,“ the French publication writes.
Responding to the editorial, Writer Teju Cole has criticized Charlie Hebdo by saying that the magazine “finally steps away from the mask of ‘it’s satire and you don’t get it’ to state clearly that Muslims, all of them, no matter how integrated, are the enemy.”
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