Note, February 7, 2015: I return to this topic in a subsequent entry.
Of the attack on the satirical publication, Charlie Hebdo,
Michael J. Morell, a former deputy director of the C.I.A. and now a consultant to CBS News, said it was unclear whether the attackers had acted on their own or been directed by organized groups. He called the motive of the attackers “absolutely clear: trying to shut down a media organization that lampooned the Prophet Muhammad.”
“So, no doubt in my mind that this is terrorism,” he said.[]
But suppose the attackers had not “screamed ‘Allahu akbar!’ or ‘God is great!’ during the attack,” or “said that they were part of Al Qaeda?”[] Suppose instead that they were Christian, reacting to some slight on Christianity? I have doubts that Morell would so quickly label the assault terrorism. He would, instead, perhaps, label it the act of three deranged relatively young men (in the event, identified as Said and Chérif Kouachi, 34 and 32, and as Hamyd Mourad, 18[]). Read more →