UC Riverside Highlander Editorial

I tend to use caution when criticizing university campus newspaper articles because, after all, these are young students writing them, and sometimes it just isn't fair for older and more experienced folks like myself to pick them apart.

The below article by the University of California at Riverside Highlander has no individual names attached, and after reading it, I felt compelled to send in my own comment in the reader thread.


http://www.highlandernews.org/16128/16128/

Below is my reader comment"

"You should not be lost for words. What happened in Paris were two atrocities carried out because someone was offended by cartoons and because someone hated Jews. (which you did not even mention). There is a worldwide movement to impose Islamic beliefs on everyone else, and it begins with criminalizing any speech critical of Islam. failing that, too many Muslims feel violence including murder is justified. Sorry, but in a free and democratic society, belief systems are going to be subject to examination, criticism, and sometimes ridicule. When a certain belief system engages in wholesale slaughter and persecution of religious minorities, there will be criticism, discussion, and even satire.
Do innocent Muslims suffer when their belief system is questioned? Yes, they do, but that is not sufficient reason to cut off and criminalize discussion of the horrors going on in the world especially when they are brought to bear on those of us in the West.

It is simple: When the intolerance, persecution, and violence ceases, the criticism will cease."

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How in the world could they not ask what it felt like to be a Jew in France given the barrage of anti-Semitic insults, attacks, and violence that is driving thousands of them to leave the country-not to mention Jews in other European countries who are in a similar situation? And it is not the Europeans themselves who are committing these acts; it is the young male Muslim immigrants, while Europeans turn a blind eye so as not to offend the Muslims.

In fact, even though this editorial is dated January 20, it seems the attack on the Jewish store was not even counted since they only counted the 12 dead from the Charlie Hebdo attack.

As a Gentile, I wonder how a Jewish student at UC Riverside would feel reading the above editorial.