Charlie Hebdo, Don't pretend your new issue does not disrespect Islam

[BainsBane]

270. When "the religion asks"

Religions don't ask. People do. There is no singular spokesman for Islam. We aren't talking about a single hierarchical organization. Most of the adherent to that religion are poor, non-white, half are women, and likely the same percent are LGBT as of any other religious or ethnic group. A religion doesn't ask. It is human beings who ask and deserve respect, and I for one do not think it acceptable to exclude great swaths of humanity from respect because of the little I know based on propaganda in US media, propaganda designed to vilify people in order to justify perpetual war against them. The finger wagging by Americans without the first inclination for self reflection is the height of irony. Americans bomb, torture, and wage endless war, but people here see themselves as superior to the Muslims they look upon with derision, pretending to do so under the guise of opposition toward "a religion," as though that were somehow separable from its ethnic, social, and geopolitical context. The media and US government have taught Americans to despise the enemy, and they have dutifully obeyed.

As for asking for respect for themselves and not caring about respect toward other groups, that is an all too common practice.