Today Radio 4. At about 7:45 we heard from Zineb El Rhazoui, “a Charlie Hebdo columnist who was on holiday in her native Morocco when the attack happened and who has been part of putting together the latest issue.”
I was mildly interested in the background of one of Charlie Hebdo’s contributors with such an ‘Arab-sounding’ moniker. Well it seems she Tweets about Sweden’s decision to recognise Palestine, and about this. Israelis breaking out the popcorn to enjoy the spectacle of the “bombs falling on Gaza.” (or the iron dome preventing bombs falling on them)
The jury’s probably still out on that.
In her interview she kept on mentioning a mysterious Michael Eagues, which (silly me with my cloth eared inability to adjust to the French accent) was her pronunciation of ‘my colleagues’.
Not so cloth-eared was my instinctive apprehension at the way she was trying to defend Charlie Edbo’s attitude to Islam.’ Attacking Islam is no different from attacking any other religion’ is what she was saying. “It’s our way of recognising that Islam is an ordinary religion, just like any other”
Well, that’s not very encouraging to some of us.
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| Boycott Israel shirt on Charlie march |
What was Angela Tilby on about on this morning’s Thought for the day?
She went into a considerable amount of detail with a graphic and heartfelt summary of the Dreyfus affair. But the message she drew from it, if I’m not mistaken was we must never demonise the ‘other’. My instinctive apprehension detected that in this instance she was not only talking about the Jews. In fact, not even talking about them. Please correct me if I’m being unnecessarily disputatious.
“That inclination to disputatiosity is how Jews are, thank Marduk. (and that verbal borderline sacrilege is also how they/we are; lightening the truly serious.)” from a comment on H/P of which more later. Sorry, must dash.
Update.
I had to go to the dentist. (all clear!) Now I’m back, and I can link to the item, which is now available here. It’s the last bit that is rather menacing. I’m sure the message is supposed to be ‘beware of Islmophobia’. I wonder if Angela Tilby watched last night’s Panorama?
Update.
I had to go to the dentist. (all clear!) Now I’m back, and I can link to the item, which is now available here. It’s the last bit that is rather menacing. I’m sure the message is supposed to be ‘beware of Islmophobia’. I wonder if Angela Tilby watched last night’s Panorama?
(I thought it was perceived opinion that Jews are not a race, but as a secular individual with no religious education or cultural connections, where has my disputatiosity come from? )
In UK law Jewish people are counted as both a religion group and a race I believe.
ReplyDeleteWell although the NT Ange follows is not a murderous tome it is packed full of "us and them" and othering! She must be battily blind not to see that. If she didn't want to get into othering, she should give up on the exclusive gang of believers and just become a normal Joanne like most people.
If the people out to get you think you're a race, and there really is a genetic marker or two, the point is moot.
DeleteOh, for FFS, we're back to the "Muslims are the new Jews", we must not let the far Right hijack this tragedy, narrative? They do this on purpose. Agenda, what agenda?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you're right about this, Sue.
ReplyDeleteAngela Tilby's generalising away from (historical) anti-Semitism towards an 'other' - "the face...that is most unfamiliar and that I most fear" - was surely meant as a switcheroo of sympathy away from the Jews and towards the Muslims.
"But it is also the face that I most need" could well become an official BBC guideline.
"...the shame of truth was simply unendurable. National pride and honour was at stake."
ReplyDeleteWe could easily apply these words to her and her type if you swapped "religious" for "national". The unpalatable truth is that not all religions are the same, that one religion at least treats the "other" with complete and utter - not to say frequently murderous - contempt. Another unpalatable truth is that mass immigration is destablising this country.
But could she admit those truths? No, because it would cause her to query her pride in the superiority of her religious beliefs.
As for this "other" nonsense... I don't think most people in this country have any fear of the odd Buddhist monk they see wondering around or Buddhist ideology with its odd absence (for a religion) of a God as such . Most people probably quite admire Buddhists, as peaceable thoughtful people. The unfamilar robes and physiognomy of a Thai Buddhist Monk causes me not the slightest bit of fear.
But of course Ange with her religious pride knows better! We're all primitive tribesmen and women fearful of the Other, about one up from the stone age.