However, as of late, it seems that Europe is increasingly turning into a racism hub under the pretense of freedom of speech. Not very long after Josep Borrell’s racist, xenophobic comments about the garden of Europe, now Charlie Hebdo has targeted Iran’s Supreme Leader in a manner that couldn’t be labeled anything but racist and Islamophobic; and blatantly so. Plus, some of its cartoons are shamelessly misogynistic, to the extent that they irritated even the most steadfast supporters of la femme, la vie, la liberté in principle.
For all the European claims of progressivity and inclusion, the unique version of the freedom of speech that Europe promotes is the pitfall that reveals the true colors of its psyche. The Charlie Hebdo cartoons are not criticizing Ayatollah Khamenei as a political leader, but as a Muslim cleric, whose points of difference can be used as objects of ridicule, excluding them from the civilized world in which everybody is entitled to their dignity.
That ‘freedom of speech’ is unique in yet another sense as well. When it comes to challenging some of the victims of the most horrible war the Europeans inflicted upon the world, i.e., the Second World War, it’s basically non-existent. Or in more blunt terms, it doesn’t extend to staunch critics of the Israeli regime and its apartheid.
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