Steve Bell’s response to the Charlie Hebdo shootings – ridiculing the attackers because they don’t deserve anything else (yes, there is an expletive and VP usually blacks them out… Not this time).

It’s understandable, but it isn’t the answer.

It seems that, following the attack on the French magazine Charlie Hebdo and the killing of 12 people by terrorists claiming to be Muslims, at least one mosque has been attacked along with other places – in retaliation?

NDTV carried the story: “Three blank grenades were thrown at the mosque shortly after midnight in the city of Le Mans, west of Paris; shots were also fired in the direction of a Muslim prayer hall shortly after evening prayers in the Port-la-Nouvelle district near Narbonne in southern France.

“An explosion at a kebab shop near a mosque in the eastern French town of Villefranche-sur-Saone on Thursday morning also left no casualties.”

This is, of course, exactly what the terrorists wanted. Terrorists always want to set people against each other, for the wrong reasons. The vast majority of Muslims are likely to have been as horrified at the terror attack as everyone else – but what are they supposed to think, now that innocent Muslims are being attacked by idiots?

Here’s the real voice of Islam, in the words of Vox Political commenter ‘Nightentity’ yesterday: “Those that believe these so-called Imams are ignorant of their faith and will believe anything they hear that makes them seem intelligent and all knowing to the other ignorant [people].

“Terrorism is not Islamic, you don’t cause suffering to the aged, the weak and the innocent, you don’t hide behind masks and scarves, you stand like a man and fight a man’s battle. These terrorists are cowards and weaklings for they hide behind a faith that does not condone what they do.

“These terrorists are only out for power and control, they are not true Muslims in any sense of the word.” [Bolding mine]

Meanwhile, the world’s political (and other) cartoonists have responded to the attack. Here’s Lew Stringer:

And Uderzo, the artist responsible for Asterix cartoons, paid respect to the deceased:

Here in the UK, cartoonist (and friend of Vox Political) Martin Rowson responded to the atrocity in a Guardian comment piece. Under the headline We must not stop laughing at these murderous clowns, he wrote: “We’re very, very good at laughing at those who place themselves above us, either as our leaders or intending to impose their beliefs to make everyone else exactly like them. However much they may identify themselves as victims of mockery, those cartoonists’ murderers have clearly also identified themselves as on the side of the power.

“Don’t forget that demanding either respect or silence from everyone else is one of the most common abuses of power going. But don’t fool yourselves that this is about Islam… The British cartoonists’ names filling the Gestapo Death List were just another manifestation, throughout history, of how hateful laughter is to despots.

“Which is why, now more than ever, we mustn’t stop laughing this latest bunch of murderous clowns to scorn.”

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

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