Glad to see so many people marching for the defense of the freedom of speech.

Moi aussi, je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed.

Thankfully my brother and sister who both live and work in Paris were unaffected, so I will leave just this;

Je suis Charlie.

"What shall I say, O Muslims, I know not myself, I am neither a Christian, nor a Jew, nor a Zoroastrian, nor a Muslim."

- Rumi

“Do not be people without minds of your own, saying that if others treat you well you will treat them well and that if they do wrong you will do wrong. But (instead) accustom yourselves to do good if people do good and not to do wrong if they do evil.”

- Prophet Muhammad as reported in Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1325.

"Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hate, and hate leads to violence. This is the equation."

- Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

Oui +1

An image occurred to me, something my artistic skills aren't quite up to making - a hail of arrows raining down on terrorism, but those aren't arrows, they are pens and pencils.

Words have power, and the true messages of peace and goodwill will be remembered in a thousand years when all the violence and its perpetrators are long forgotten.

No matter what, there are always more things that unite us than divide us.

Again...

Sadden to hear and read news of this type of stuff again. My thoughts and condolences go out to those affected by this attack.

Horrible.

Thoughts are with all in Paris. Was very lucky that my sister was okay.

My thoughts are with the people in Paris and Beirut. And people elsewhere also suffering because of ISIS.

JE SUIS
CHATON




Go on, Brussels!

Yes
Some of the action was just a few blocks away from where I work. The police asked us to be silent on social media about their movement and actions so the Belgians started spamming the social media with lolcats. To show their gratitude, the next day the police posted a thank you note with a picture of cat food.

I hope our humorous defiance isn't badly received in France. The Belgians do feel with the people of France, and we do feel responsible for the humiliating mess that is Molembeek

Belgium humour is greatly apreciated!
Keep the spirit high!

"When it rains in Paris, it drizzles in Brussels."

When you have a country of only about 10 million people, you dread the times you hit the international news. Last time we did so, it was a farcical occasion: 589 days from election to installed administration. We obliterated the standing record, which was 249 days for Iraq in 2010. We even came out to celebrate the dubious honour, and we had calendars and everything.

It's been harder to find humour here, but the lolcats are a good sign. We make our own fun.

And now Brussels. I guess they wanted to appear strong after the apprehension of some terrorists lately, but all I see are acts of cowardice.

I hope everyone is alright.

Cowardice indeed. Sad world.

Today I feel Belgium.
But terrorism shall not prevail!
I still will use Brussels airport and metro.

I find it hard to think of the terrorists as cowards. They're evil, twisted, hate-filled sacks of excrement, but I think carrying out a suicide attack does demand a certain courage. I guess it's as good a reminder as any that courage in the service of evil is no virtue.

Salah Abdeslam, now he's a coward. He chickened out, ran and hid, then let himself get captured alive. If only they were all as cowardly as him...

I suppose it's down to the notion of fighting vs killing. Arguably, "fighting" against an enemy directly is brave (with all the baggage that comes with warfare) while killing someone (i.e. Murder) who is unaware and unarmed only requires killing and is by no means "fair" or "honourable."

But 'unfair' and 'dishonourable' doesn't necessarily equal 'cowardly'.

My elderly French neighbour and her late husband were in the Resistance during WWII. They never fought 'fair' and they didn't give a crap about 'honour'. But they sure as hell were brave.

Daesh are evil because they deliberately kill innocents and because Daesh's ultimate goal (running the entire world the way they run their territory in Syria and Iraq) is evil. Not because they are 'cowards' who refuse to 'fight fair'. Fighting fairly or honourably does not sanctify evil acts or an evil cause. And fighting fairly and honourably against a superior military power isn't 'good', it's just stupid.

EDIT: You might wonder why this matters. Surely there's no harm in calling Daesh terrorists 'cowards', right? It's a basic human coping behaviour to ascribe negative qualities to our enemies. Well, I think it's always dangerous to fall into the trap of underestimating the enemy. Everyone knows cowards back down if you stand up to them, right? Yeah, but fanatics don't. If you're in a situation involving a terrorist fanatic and you wrongly assume he is a coward, that mistake may well prove fatal for you.

MODERATOR's EDIT:
Please no judgement on a religion as a whole.
Calisson

EDIT: Changed with mod's permission to make clear my intent above. I had originally used the term 'Islamist' to mean specifically violent extremism, but it has been brought to my attention that that term is sometimes applied more broadly to include non-violent Muslims as well.

I get what you're pointing at. For sake of argument... on one hand you point at resistance fighters being brave, in spite of never choosing a fair fight. Then you call people who back down when you stand up to them a coward. What if the resistance would back down when outnumbered or facing the wrong kind of odds? I don't think it's backing down that marks one as a coward.

Carrying a bomb to unsuspecting, unarmed civilians is hardly a courageous act. There never was a threat to their person but the one they made themselves. Actually.. they probably could even stand up for their beliefs and not be punished for it. To put it crudely, if they didn't carry that bomb, they could dance in the subway station and the airport, and nobody would think less of them for it. They never were an enemy or seen as one, until they chose to be. Their acts are hardly comparable to civilians taking up arms against a military oppressor.

This is not about stigmatising them, or labelling one group as "the enemy". This is about condemning the act itself, nothing more. We could discuss the problems that lead to this act of terrorism.. but that is beyond the purpose of this thread and my post. It might become very political as well.

I'm not going to continue this discussion. It's clear I'm not going to be able to properly argue the case without getting modded. And in any case maybe this place should be a refuge from awful real-world stuff.

Perhaps.. we can find more common ground in Belgian's response?

Somewhat sensitive:

[+] SPOILER

My personal favourite:

An AK-47 isn't a mitraillette, though, it's a fusil d'assaut...