{"id":34205,"date":"2015-01-09T10:01:50","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T17:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=34205"},"modified":"2015-01-14T13:40:09","modified_gmt":"2015-01-14T20:40:09","slug":"je-suis-charlie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/je-suis-charlie\/","title":{"rendered":"Je suis Charlie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0By Lori Poloni-Staudinger
\n<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>Chair of the Department of Politics and
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/em>International Affairs<\/em><\/p>\n

Wednesday, terrorists attacked the heart of Paris at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo<\/em> resulting in 12 deaths, among them cartoonists and editors.\u00a0The violence is still unfolding today.<\/p>\n

Why strike Charlie Hebdo<\/em>? The magazine\u00a0is easily identified at newsstands throughout Paris by its inflammatory and poignant covers. Of particular import to this week\u2019s attack, were the magazine\u2019s controversial depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. One cartoon had the magazine renaming itself Charia Hebdo<\/em>, a play on Shariah Law, and showed the prophet saying, \u201c100 lashes if you have not died laughing.”<\/p>\n

The gunmen were two French brothers of Algerian background who had sympathy for al-Qaida and Islamic extremist groups in Yemen. We can assume the attack was because of the magazine\u2019s irreverent depictions of the Prophet, as earlier depictions resulted in threats against and attacks on the magazine.<\/p>\n

Charlie Hebdo<\/em> satirists, however, did not exclusively focus on Islam. They called out extremism and authority in ALL forms, including politicians and religious leaders of all faiths.<\/p>\n

While some in the United States may have a hard time understanding why a magazine like Charlie Hebdo<\/em> enjoyed wide readership in France, we need to understand it in light of the secular tradition in that country and a deep history of and respect for political satire.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the attack, why did the magazine continue to print inflammatory material knowing that they were under threat? In the words of cartoonist Stephane \u2018Charb\u2019 Carbonnier, killed in the attack, \u201cje prefere mourir\u00a0debout que\u00a0vivre\u00a0\u00e0 genoux,\u201d meaning I would rather die standing than live on my knees.<\/p>\n

Charlie Hebdo\u2019s irreverent cartoons were meant to elicit reflection and satirize power, causing citizens to question authority. In a free society, we must encourage all forms of political expression, especially those that push the boundaries of the irreverent to shed light on extremism. Thus, I echo many who stand in solidarity with the magazine and recognize the importance of its role by saying \u201cJe Suis Charlie.\u201d I am Charlie.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0By Lori Poloni-Staudinger \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Chair of the Department of Politics and \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0International Affairs Wednesday, terrorists attacked the heart of Paris at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo resulting in 12 deaths, among them cartoonists and editors.\u00a0The violence is still unfolding today. Why strike Charlie Hebdo? The magazine\u00a0is easily identified at newsstands throughout…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":34207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-views-from-nau"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}