******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
It's nice to read Richard Seymour's post but also distressing to see the kind of garbage that is posted in response both by "leftists" like Shane and the commentators on the website itself. It's not new to see leftists dismissing the scourge of Islamophobia, or even having difficulty understanding what it is, as though the campaign (crusade?) against Islam in France and in some parts of the United States is anything but a racialized campaign to scapegoat migrants or drum up war propaganda. It is the counter to the campaign by many on the right (and too many on the left) to find "anti-Semitism" wherever Israel's barbarism is rightfully singled out, or whenever the larger issue of Jewish integration into the West (and Muslim, African, and other exclusion) is brought up. With all the barrage of sentiments about "protecting freedom of speech," it's a wonder nobody has brought up the fact that Muslims in France are barred from wearing certain types of clothing on exclusively "cultural" grounds, that they are targeted mercilessly by police, that "hate speech laws" are used to target their community rather than to protect it, and perhaps most embarrassingly that the French government had the gall to threaten jail sentences against anyone who dared protest this summer's Gaza massacre of Muslims. Note also how in Norway, few saw the right-wing terror attack on student democracy activists at a political summer camp by Anders Breivik (originally blamed on "the Muslims") as an attack on freedom of speech, but instead reduced it to the attitude of a crazy person -- as though his ideas were anything but the result of far-right anti-Muslim activism that one would think threatens the freedom of Muslims, immigrants, left-wing activists, political freedom, etc. "Freedom of speech," like "terrorism," is not an objective term despite attempts by theorists to come up with objective definitions. Culturally and legally, both terms are used by the dominant classes to frame that which is worth protecting and that which is threatening. And no, I am not criticizing the sympathy with the journalists killed, I think it goes without saying that what was done was atrocious and deserves condemnation from all quarters. I am criticizing the narrative. - Amith On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 12:46 PM, Shane Mage via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > > On Jan 7, 2015, at 3:23 PM, John Obrien via Marxism wrote: > >> >> Opposing religion and religious fanatics - is not racist to many atheists >> as myself. >> >> Why not be open and state you favor Islam, or some other religious >> superstition >> and why you favor censorship of atheists on a Marxist List? >> >> Who wrote: "Religion is the opium of the people" >> >> > Ah, but opium, used right, is a very valuable drug! > > > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/ > options/marxism/amithrgupta%40gmail.com > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
