· Shocked, outraged, and repulsed by the cowardly attack against the editorial board of Charly Hebdo, which has left 12 people dead.
· If there is confirmation that "Islamic" terrorists are behind the
massacre, they’ve provided an excellent propaganda boon to Islamophobes and racists of all stripes, which will come down heavily on the Muslim communities of France, Belgium, and the rest of the world.
· We must reject all attempts to place collective blame on the Muslim community or on the Muslim religion as such.
· We must combat all attempts by governments, first and foremost by the French government, to use this attack to pass “anti-terror laws”, which will cut back our democratic rights and will stigmatize the Muslim people living in our cities and in particular the youth in the council estates.
· Such laws will also be used against trade unionists and against all progressive movements and people that struggle to transform society.
· The French government will use the attack to win popular support for its imperialist adventures in Africa and the rest of the world in the name of the war on terror. Consequently, under no circumstances can we tone down our opposition to imperialist operations.
· Without justifying the religious fundamentalists in any way, we must understand the roots of this fanaticism in order to fight it better.
· The explanation of this fanaticism is not in the Quran, but in the social, economic, and political conditions of injustice, discrimination, and humiliation in which growing numbers of young Muslims are living in.
· In this context, a small minority of young people finds in the Jihadists’ demagoguery a deformed outlet to their feelings of injustice and to their desire to fight the system. They are being led astray.
· The left and the labour movement cannot hide behind moralistic, anti-religious, or republican preaching, or stand in defence of the existing democracy to fight against terrorism and religious fundamentalism.
· The left has to fight this system and cannot warm up to it. The left has to present an alternative for this youth and to develop their class consciousness to put an end to the misery of capitalism.
· We have to fight together against this rotten system which gives rise to this type of massacres and to create the material conditions for a genuine human society based on fraternity and solidarity and not on hatred and division.
Originally written and posted by Erik Demeester
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