Indeed, we on the left uphold press freedom and other democratic rights for real, in a way that imperialist states and governments never do and never will. We see the murder at Charlie Hebdo not as “an attack on the West” but as an expression of the “clash of barbarisms” that has been astutely analyzed by Gilbert Achcar (see the interview on “Democracy Now,” January 8, democracynow.org/2015/1/8/a_clash_of_barbarisms_after_paris). From the 9-11 attacks to the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, to the rise of the ”Islamic State,” the ongoing tragedies in Pakistan and Syria and elsewhere, and the rise of Islamophobia in European countries and the USA, racialized imperialism and the worst elements of religious-totalitarian fanaticism feed upon each other.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 22:00:01 +0000