Turkey's Gov't-Aligned News Blame Victims in Paris Attack
Thu, January 8, 2015
French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira near the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo yesterday (Photo: © Reuters)
Turkish and regional Islamist newspapers have blamed the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo ("Charlie Weekly") for the attacks against it yesterday. Islamists and jihadists all over the world rejoiced over the attack, flocked to online forums and sharing their glee on social media.
The
assault on the magazine, the worst terrorist attack in France in 50
years, killed 10 journalists and two policemen. Those murdered were
staff of the magazine who had been holding their weekly editorial
meeting at the time.
It has been reported that the jihadists targeted
specific cartoonists. Among those killed was the magazine's chief editor
Stephane Charbonnier and three of France’s most famous cartoonists: Jean Cabut, George Wolinski and Bernard Verlhac.
One of the terrorists, aged 18, turned himself in to the French authorities.
He gave the names of the other attackers, two brothers -- Cherif
Kouachi, 32, and Said Kouachi, 34 -- to the police. The manhunt for the
two continues.
Paris was shaken this morning by another apparent terror attack when a policewoman was shot in the southwestern suburb of Montrouge by
a man with an automatic rifle. The policewoman has since died of her
wounds. The attack has not been definitively connected to yesterday’s
shooting.
Following the attack on Charlie Hebdo, Yeni Akit,
a Turkish daily newspaper with ties to the ruling Islamist AK party,
ran the headline “Attack on The Magazine that Provoked Muslims.”
Another pro-AKP party paper, the Turkiye Gazetesi, ran the headline “Attack on the Magazine that Insulted Our Master the Prophet.”
After it received heavy criticism on social media, the magazine changed
their headline to “Attack on the magazine that published ugly cartoons
of our prophet.”
By contrast Turkiye Gazetesi’s English-language website ran the headline “American Muslims Condemn Paris Attack on Charlie Hebdo” this morning. Yet inside the article, the same sentiment as in the article in Turkish is evident. The first sentence moves straight onto Charlie’s Hebdo’s “history of publishing unflattering depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.”
This should not come as a surprise. Turkey’s foreign minister said yesterday that terrorist Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal was welcome to move to Turkey should he leave Qatar, where he has been based, despite Turkey’s official status as a NATO ally.
As reported by the Daily Caller, Egyptian newspaper Shorouk said in its headline that Charlie Hebdo had “A history of insulting the prophet, ending in fire.”
These
papers are all implying that the writers and cartoonists at Charlie
Hebdo brought the terrorist attack on themselves by exercising freedom
of expression.
At the same time, many Western media outlets have decided not to publish Charlie Hebdo's cartoons
so as not to upset Muslims. CNN’s Editorial Director Richard Griffith
sent an internal memo reading, “We are not at this time showing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet considered offensive by many Muslims.”
Several Western media outlets explained the motive of the ruthless murderers by saying that they were provoked.
Labels: Atrocities, Cartoons, France, Islamists, Journalists, Turkey
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, January 08, 2015
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