Islamophobic Charlie Hebdo cartoons.

Satirising hegemonic power is courageous but satirising the victims of
that power is cowardly. Alas, this cowardice is all too often mistaken
for courage.

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The words of the novelist Saladin Ahmed are worth pondering: “In a
field dominated by privileged voices, it’s not enough to say ‘Mock
everyone!’ In an unequal world, satire that mocks everyone equally ends
up serving the powerful. And in the context of brutal inequality, it is
worth at least asking what pre-existing injuries we are adding our

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the Taoiseach in Paris on Sunday, at the march for freedom of speech,
and to show solidarity with the 12 people murdered at the offices of
the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, (and the four civilians killed
at a kosher grocery and the police officer who was fatally shot last
week). Incredibly, officials from Saudi Arabia also attended the march,