Juan Cole: Paris Terrorists Wanted To Embolden The French Right

Count on "The Right" to do the wrong thing.

This is especially true when conservatives are alarmed.

"Conservatives Scare More Easily Than Liberals"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/07/conservatives-scare-more-easily-than.html

"Bank On It: The South Is Always Wrong"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/bank-on-it-south-is-always-wrong.html

"Terror And The Other Religions"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/04/terrorism-and-other-religions-juan-cole.html

The Psychiatric Diagnosis Of American Conservatives: Folie à Plusieurs

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-psychiatric-diagnosis-of-american.html

"American Conservatives And Oppositional-Defiant Disorder"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/arrested-development-american.html

"Republicans For Revolution," A Study In Anarchic Apocalypticism

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/republicans-for-revolution-study-in.html

"The Death of Epistemology"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/09/are-polls-skewed-death-of-epistemology.html

4. Cartoonists murdered in Paris

JUAN COLE: The terrorists knew they would embolden the French right. That was their goal. The men spoke fluent French and were almost certainly aware of the political situation. They probably hope that while most French Muslims aren't interested in jihad, by provoking non-Muslims into treating Muslims badly, violent fundamentalists can more easily recruit Muslims into "a common political identity around grievance against discrimination." Informed Comment.

Twelve people were shot dead at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine. Those killed included the magazine's senior editor and several of France's most well-read and irreverent cartoonists. One of the three suspects, a Muslim extremists known to French intelligence, surrendered after escaping, while the other two remain at large. Dan Bilefsky and Maïa de la Baume in The New York Times.

DOUTHAT: We need blasphemy. A liberal society depends on the freedom to offer opinions that offend some of its members. "If a large enough group of someones is willing to kill you for saying something, then it’s something that almost certainly needs to be said, because otherwise the violent have veto power over liberal civilization, and when that scenario obtains it isn't really a liberal civilization any more." The New York Times.

WILKINSON: Other outlets should publish the cartoons. Cartoons have always had a special ability to deflate the murderous pomposity of the powerful and deluded, but describing them in prose renders them harmless. "To describe the cartoons, and not show them, is essentially to do the bidding of the terrorists." The Economist.