exploring muslim identities in europe & north america

Recently, Charlie Hebdo featured a cartoon that purportedly provided commentary on the refugee situation and accusations of sexual misconduct in Germany by controversially depicting Aylan Kurdi—the three-year-old Syrian boy whose tragic drowning captured global attention—as a grown "pig-faced" individual chasing "white" women. The questionable caption asks what Aylan might have grown up to become, implying he would be an assailant in Germany. The illustration, created by Laurent Sourisseau, who is the magazine's current director and a survivor of the terrorist attack at Charlie Hebdo's offices, appears to underscore the claims that refugees, including Syrians, were among the perpetrators of the sexual assaults reported in Cologne, Germany, on New Year's Eve. Despite the claims of Charlie Hebdo that it champions a "healthy critical attitude," the overtly provocative nature of the cartoon borders on sheer sensation-seeking. Indeed, misinterpreta

July 1, 2013      by Harris Beider       Open Society Initiative for Europe In May, two young British men of Nigerian origin murdered a British soldier named Drummer Lee Rigby on the streets of Woolwich, in southeast London. The event made national and international news. Photos and videos in which one of the men explains his actions were captured by bystanders and circulated widely on social media. The perpetrators, who were born in the UK and had grown up in stable, devoutly Christian homes before converting to Islam, justified the killing as retribution for Britain’s military engagement in Afghanistan and other Muslim countries. In many ways, the response to this event has been predictable. The British government has started a review of its strategy on violent extremism, which could focus on curbing the activities of “hate preachers,” working with schools to save young people from drifting into extremism, and increasing the powers of surveillance on electronic communications. R