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Charlie Hebdo Archive

Monday

2

February 2015

28

COMMENTS

The Clash of Civilizations in 2015: The West, Russia and Islam

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clashofcivilizations

In 1992, the late conservative political scientist Samuel P. Huntington delivered a lecture on the developing ‘clash of civilizations,’ his vision of a post-Cold War world order characterized by large-scale cultural conflict in place of the previous global ideological conflicts between the various political “-isms” produced by Western modernity — capitalism, communism and fascism. Developing his thoughts into a book in 1996, Huntington provided the following breakdown of world civilizations: Huntington himself offered some explanations for why civilizations clash in the typically modern, Harvard style of over-explaining fairly banal concepts, i.e. civilization is profoundly felt, profound differences cause conflict, etc. — […]

Friday

30

January 2015

1

COMMENTS

Saudi Deals and Secularist Delusions

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France is famous for its staunchly secular political order. Unlike Britain with its state church or Germany with its Church tax, the French state declares itself free of religious influence. Yet in an apparent contradiction, French laïcité routinely makes higher demands of religious minorities. The French constitution’s claim that its Republic is both indivisible and secular extends to cultural norms as well as political ones. This makes France a fine example of one of the core neoreactionary principles: there is always a church – a force which determines which ideas and habits are respectable. No amount of secularism can obscure the fact […]

Friday

9

January 2015

2

COMMENTS

#JeSuisCharlie Won’t Save Free Speech

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The horrific attacks on Charlie Hebdo  have brought forth a defence of free expression from politicians, journalists, and ordinary citizens. But the outpouring of support is an exception in a broader pattern of events. The French President tries to call for a national unity that seems little more than a distant memory. Satirists across Europe convey their shock and grief – but everyone is rightfully nervous about republishing the Muhammad cartoons which put Charlie Hebdo on the radical Islamist death list. As Foreign Policy magazine and Reason.com have both pointed out, we are not all Charlie Hebdo, and not a few Western outlets […]