FOREIGN AFFAIRS A5
www.bearingnews.org • The Rock • January 29, 2015
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nizations take freedom of speech far a majority of the time. There eds to be a balance between freem of speech and respecting difent cultures as well as being more en to criticism and humor,” Parks d. “But speech should never be mited by governmental regulations. hould be limited by common sense d logical thinking of an individual.” This attack has ignited a debate out freedom of expression; one that still the topic of much media and itical attention. And while “Je Suis arlie” can be an easy catch phrase embrace, Meyer said, he does not nsider himself to be a “Charlie.” “I’m not Charlie because I’m not ench, and I’m not living under se particular government’s rules. m not Charlie because I’m not riskmy life,” Meyer said. “ But I am o not Charlie because I don’t think arlie is making, always, approprior helpful contributions to what an important debate—a debate out] free speech.”
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law on May 20. Fifteen days later, the blooded began. After the crackdown, anyone workin the government who was sympathetic h the protesters was fired and foreign journalwere forced to leave the country. According to official figures, 200 to 300 people re killed. However, unofficial estimates put the ath toll above 2,000. To this day, people in Chiare prohibited from speaking about the event.
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pers around that used historic documents, inding the Bible and Aristotle’s works, to conce people that the Nazi government was ocious. On Feb. 18, the Nazis arrested the active memrs of the White Rose. Four days later, they were ed and beheaded in public.
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t one point or another, in every single country on Earth, minority populations have been persecuted, harassed and humiliated. It is not news that during World War II, thousands of Japanese Americans were rounded up and placed in concentration camps in America because the U.S. government was afraid they were enemies of the state. In Germany, non-Aryans were thrown in concentration camps and killed. In Russia, the ethnic Tatars who lived in present-day Crimea were murdered in the tens of millions during World War II because they were different. A large minority in France is the Muslim population. “The challenges of some of these European states and communities that are allowing lots of immigration from especially the ISIS-held territories and allowing a lot of refuges [is] allowing certain people freedom of movement between Syria or Yemen,” AP World History teacher Greg Irwin said. “You might have a young disaffected person go to some of these terrorist groups and training camps [and] there [are] challenges that go with that.” In Paris Jan. 7, 11 people were murdered inside the headquarters of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Then, a police officer was slain on the sidewalk outside of the headquarters. Later that day, gunmen killed five innocent civilians shopping at a kosher grocery store in another part of France. “We’ve lived in a post-9/11 world long enough that anyone who is an educated person and is aware of what is happening in the world knows that this is not true Islam, This is a corrupt ideology that has some claims to have roots in something,” Irwin said. “Just as Westboro Baptist is to Christianity, so are Al-Qaeda or the [Paris attackers] are to Islam. They are non-factors, non realities, and I just think the big reality is that here in the USA the Muslim immigrants and the Muslim citizens’ association with these [extremists] just need to
die, and we should let it die.” As with most, if not all, other terrorist attacks committed by Muslims, minority Muslims in France are experiencing the harm resulting from the actions of the extremists who chose to take up arms against satirical cartoonists. According to the Associated Press, the number of anti-Muslim attacks since the events of the Charlie Hebdo massacre has surpassed the number of attacks in the entire year of 2014. “When I first heard about the attacks and the 12 dead, I didn’t really hear who it was [committed] by,” Noah Mefrakis, a Muslim student at RBHS, said. “But I assumed they were going to say the attackers were Muslims.” Mefrakis said he never faced bigotry from his peers, but he has Muslim friends who went through cases of blind hatred. “There have been times in my freshman year of high school when I was still at West Junior where there were individuals who seemed pretty serious when they called me a terrorist,” senior Alp Kahveci said. “I didn’t respond to them, and I cut off my relationship with them because they became pretty annoying.” While Mefrakis and Kahveci both believe the actions of the attackers are not justifiable in anyway, they also think Charlie Hebdo shouldn’t have printed the cartoons of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. They say doing so provoked the attackers to do what they did. Many prominent and famous figures have Mefrakis’ same views. Last week in an interview in the Philippines, the Pope said that while the violence is not justified, people should not provoke, insult or make fun of other people’s religion. Others, like Rupert Murdoch, owner of a multi-national news or-
17 ED R E D R MU MIL AWA LIONS KEN ED art by Abdul-Rahman Abdul-Kafi
ganization, believe the Muslim population at large should apologize for the actions of these terrorists. Irwin believes it doesn’t matter whether or not a Muslim in Columbia or anywhere condemns the attacks because the only people responsible for them are the people who did them. “It is degrading to ask ... Muslims [to condemn] these acts. These are extremists from all sorts,” Irwin said. “Why are you asking someone from Columbia, Missouri to apologize for someone from France or Syria?” Kahveci and Mefrakis said if more people walk up and talk with their Muslim peers rather than believing all that the media tell them, they would know that almost all Muslims are not violent people. “Not all Muslims are terrorists, we are very peaceful people,” Mefrakis said. “And [Muslim students] think everybody needs to take a moment and actually talk to one of the Muslims at Rock Bridge and ask questions and learn what Islam is actually about rather than taking what the media says because a lot of the time [what they say] is false.”