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Ezra Klein: France Shooting Has Nothing To Do With ‘Cartoons Or Religion’

Alex Griswold Media Reporter
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Liberal Vox founder Ezra Klein chimed in Wednesday afternoon to say that the shooting attack on French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo for its publications of cartoons about Muhammad wan’t about “cartoons or religion.” (RELATED: Police Put Paris Shooting Death Toll At 12, Including Two Police Officers)

In the piece, entitled “Don’t let murderers pretend their crimes are about cartoons,” Klein begins by acknowledging that “the magazine knowingly antagonized extremists,” but later says we “shouldn’t buy into the bullshit narrative of a few madmen that their murders were a response to some cartoons.”

“Their crime isn’t explained by cartoons or religion,” he explains, “Plenty of people read Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons and managed to avoid responding with mass murder. Plenty of people follow all sorts of religions and somehow get through the day without racking up a body count.”

“Allowing extremists to set the limits of conversation validates and entrenches the extremists’ premises,” Klein says. He concludes the murders of a dozen people for something they published “needn’t be condemned on free speech grounds.”

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