R6 Midterm 2015

R5 Midterm

Gigi-Michele et Marc Test

listen to ‘Test Marc’ on audioBoom

Le Gateau de Gigi-Michèle

Le Passé Composé et L'Imparfait

listen to ‘Arnaud 3’ on audioBoom

Midterm R4 2015

Je Suis Charlie

Dear Mom and Dad,

I know that you are already aware of the terrible incident that has occurred in Paris. I am writing to you to tell you that I am okay, however the majority of the Parisians are at unease. I recently took place in a moment of silence for the victims of the shooting, however on the other end of the spectrum there have been multiple protests throughout the streets supporting the Right to Free Speech. The slogan of these protesters is “Je suis Charlie;” their symbol shows a fist carrying a pencil. I do believe that in the end of this horrific event, the pen was much mightier than the sword.

An article I read from BBC documents the entire massacre of Charlie Hebdo. It all began on last Wednesday morning, when two masked men driving a black car arrived at Rue Nicolas-Appert. They were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles. After shooting a maintenance man, they found Corrine Rey, a cartoonist carrying her toddler daughter. They threatened to shoot her child if she didn’t let them into the newsroom. Once inside, they shot the writers of the paper who were partaking in a weekly editorial meeting. One of the victims was the editor in chief- Stephane Charbonnier, who was currently under police protection due to previous death threats. All the while they were crying out “Allahu Akbar” or “God is Great” in Arabic. After hijacking another car for the getaway, they were found by the police in the north-east of Paris, where they were cornered and killed in an industrial building.

Last Friday, two separate terrorists who were linked to the Charlie Hebdo murders were holding hostages in a Kosher Market. A policewoman was killed in this incident.

The biggest question that the world is having to deal with is whether the showing of the Islamic prophet was considered an act of free speech or intolerance. Other questions I have for this article is how these two terrorists, who were members of the working class before their act of war, were able to obtain these military-grade guns? How did they become indoctrinated into the ways of extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS?

It’s important to understand this story because it makes us reflect on what morals we have as a democracy. Most people understand that the right to a free press does not make us bound to the religious rights and opinions of others. They claim that a free press allows writers and cartoonists to indulge in these taboos that would be considered blasphemy in other parts of the world. These members of Charlie Hebdo were wrongly murdered, and I do believe in free speech and press. I saw the pictures that upset the terrorists. However, there were a few pictures that made me realize that their was a flaw in the paper’s approach to satire the jihadists. I think what a lot of people fail to understand is that these extremists DO NOT PRACTICE REAL ISLAM. What these terrorists follow religiously is a extreme and archaic interpretation that is meant solely to gain power over others, according to Muslim scholars around the world. I do not believe it was morally right to target those few pictures showing Mohammed towards the entirety of France’s Muslim population, when the real goal was directed towards the extremists. The extremists had no right to kill or torture the writers for their actions, but those pictures present yet another barrier in a society in need of tolerance.

I remember watching Vice Magazine’s coverage of the Islamic State a short while back. It was very easy to see the fanaticism behind the ISIS movement, and how quickly the Caliphate was beginning to grow. But, what scared me the most was a short interview the Vice journalist had with a certain man. His job was to indoctrinate the children, and in the middle of the interview he approached a young boy playing in the river with his friends. He pulled the boy inside, and began questioning him about who the infidels were. What frightened me was how the pressured boy was so easy to accept these claims as fact in order to please the man and to continue to play in the river. Just something to think about.

Love,

Arielle