A Brighton priest has criticised the “gratuitously insulting”, “puerile and offensive” French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Father Ray Blake wrote about the magazine on his blog yesterday (Thursday 8 January) after eight journalists, two police officers, a caretaker and a visitor were murdered at its offices on Wednesday.
The parish priest of St Mary Magdalen, in Upper North Street, Brighton, deplored the “barbaric” killings while addressing the question of free speech in a blog post headlined “Je suis non Charlie”.
He wrote: “Coldblooded murder and terror is barbaric. Shooting journalists or cartoonists in a magazine is deplorable. It is indefensible. Killing is always a grave offence against God.
“I would certainly want to show support with the dead, the injured and the bereaved.
“Terror must always be met with the full force of the law. There should be no hiding place for those who killed at the Charlie Hebdo office. Nothing can justify the killing of the innocent.”
“The Paris killings are deeply troubling. They show the problem of a dominant society that contains a minority that do not share its values, in fact a group that has values that are directly opposed to its values and finds those values deeply offensive.
“France likes to think of itself as the epitome of the secular state and is therefore incapable of understanding the deep offence caused to religious sentiment by offensive imagery.
“Many of those protesting (about) the Charlie Hebdo murders on the streets of European cities are presumably not merely liberal secularists but members of the far right too.
“An alliance of the two is highly worrying, especially for a society like many in the West that are dependent for basic services on recently arrived immigrants, primarily because their own birth rate is so low.
“There have been suggestions that the Charlie Hebdo murders were an attack on free speech but France like the rest of the West is against homophobic, racist, sexist speech and has laws to restrict that kind of freedom.
“Charlie Hebdo is actually puerile and offensive though it might be seen as court jester of French liberal establishment.
“It is not freedom of speech it defends but its own right to be gratuitously insulting. Take a look at some of its front covers.
“It is a mark of any civilised society that all its members have some entitlement to be treated with respect.
“In a healthy society one moderates one’s tone and uses language which is respectful, especially of an underclass or minority which is potentially explosive.
“The vast majority of Muslims are the victims of murderous thugs rather than the thugs themselves but the relationship of Islam and violence needs to discussed.
“The Charlie Hebdo murders should invite greater freedom of speech.
“So too does the state’s relationship with justice.
“The West contains a great number of disengaged young men and women who are increasingly alienated from our society.
“Laws no longer bind. There are swathes of our society who make up their own rules, who have their own codes and see the establishment as corrupt and oppressive.”
To read his blog post in full, click here.
I’m surprised that more peddlers of religious drivel haven’t come out with the same sentiment (Bill Donahue in the States being the expected one to put his head over the parapet immediately), believing like the terrorists, that the feelings of their imaginary friend is more important than human life or freedom. Having said that I am somewhat surprised that Mr Blake has the gall to call something other than his cult gratuitously insulting, puerile & offensive without a hint of irony.
This man’s views are sanctimonious and odious. Je suis Charlie.
Religon ruins everything. We had to listen to the lies spouted by religious leaders for all of our lives. Long live satire.
What a tool. There are few books more offensive in content than the Old Testament (genocide, racism, infanticide, paedos, genital mutilation, non-consensual murder, blah blah blah)
Honestly, what next – are fat slags or people with unfeasibly large testicles going to burst into the offices of Viz and slaughter thousands? Wise up!
It should be “Je ne suis pas Charlie”. Couldn’t somebody have looked that up?
lol journalists these days don’t do “looking up”.
All the major religions seek to dictate how people lead aspects of their lives and they are all sexist and homophobic. The laws against homophobia, racism and sexism are there to protect ordinary people who just want to lead their lives and be treated equally. If religions try to tell people the way they lead their lives is somehow wrong they should be prepared for a counter arguement and in a democratic society this includes satire. They shouldn’t then hide behind the line of, ‘religions deserve special respect,’ which translates as, ‘don’t question’. Hiding behind a ‘greater authority’ only works if you believe in it.
His reasoning is about as good as his French. Charlie Hebdo is tasteless and not particularly funny in my opinion, but if you don’t like something you turn the other cheek. I’m sure that’s written somewhere.
A difficult situation needing ongoing careful discussion, dialogue and thought. From my own knowledge of, and contaccts with islam I know many muslims will, themsleves, be deeply concerned regarding the recent tragedy inParis-there are passages in the Qu’ran that speak against killing the innocent and also of religius toleramce. This indicates to me that Father Ray is on the right lines in calling for discussion of the relationship between Islam and violence.
This kind of violnce is, then, contary to Qu’ranic teaching. The Vatican two document ‘Nostra Aetate’ is concerned witht he church;s relationship with other religions, it mentions the “great respect” the church has for Islam and calls for a working together “..to promote peace,liberty, social justice and moral values”
“Nostra Aetate” means in our time and with this tragedy in our times comes a greater need to work together for peace with knowledge as our main tool closely followed by integrity.
I say well done Father Ray for making a stand and speaking out, I wish more religious leaders would instead of so much sitting on the fence.
Personally I don’t get why this website is giving a platform to this eejit
“je n’suis pas” is correct = but “je n’suis jesus ” is more ironic = or, indeed, “je suis Voltaire”.
Fr. Blake is a good guy but, like his command of the French language (and thought), a bit wonky.
Well what do you expect – this is a guy from a religion that believes different languages exist because people built a tower that was too tall and God was cross and smote them all with the Curse of Babel. Embarrassing!