Godless Spellchecker's Blog

Joe Walsh is an American conservative radio host and former congressman. He may now also be responsible for the most ignorant and misjudged tweet ever sent. Those who have spent enough time on Twitter will understand the magnitude of this achievement.

The tweet reads: ‘French rag Charlie Hebdo mocks Harvey victims as Neo Nazis Charlie Hebdo makes fun of everyone but Muslims. Cowards’

Charlie Hebdo is a left-wing, satirical newspaper produced in France. Of course, the only reason most outside of France have even heard of ‘Charlie Hebdo’ is because two Islamist gunmen forced their way into their Paris headquarters in 2015. Twelve members of Charlie Hebdo’s staff were slaughtered at the hands of these Muslim fanatics for the ‘crime’ of drawing Islam’s prophet in their magazine. The headquarters had previously been firebombed in 2011 for the same reason.

When most of the free press buckled in the wake of this terror and refused to re-publish the cartoons that had been the inspiration for mass murder, the remaining staff members of Charlie Hebdo released a ‘survivor’s issue’ with Muhammad once again on the front cover. This seems to me to be the opposite of cowardice.

Walsh’s tweet is all that much stranger when you consider that he tweeted out many tributes to their courage throughout 2015 and 2016. His more recent tweets about the magazine appear to display anger at their understandable caution at poking fun at Islam.

However, Charlie Hebdo released this issue after the recent Islamic terror attacks in Barcelona:

Mocking both the platitude “Islam is the religion of peace” and the death its followers have visited on Europe recently, the cover reads “Islam is the religion of peace….eternal [peace]”.

Walsh’s ire is directed at the latest cover of Charlie Hebdo magazine in his initial tweet:

The image appears to depict Nazis perishing during the Harvey Hurricane floods in Texas with the caption “God exists! He drowned all the neo-Nazis of Texas!”.

Now, were I a betting man, I’d wager that Charlie Hebdo is mocking those who think god controls the weather in order to mete out punishment on those he disapproves. You often hear this kind of rhetoric coming from red states such as Texas whenever there is a natural disaster. Gay marriage is often fingered as the cause.

A number of neo-Nazi/white supremacist organizations are based in Texas too. 

Given the amount of controversy this cover is producing, I’m sure the creator will clear up their intent any moment now.

It is worth keeping in mind that a lot of Charlie Hebdo’s satirical cartoons rely heavily on an up to date knowledge of the French political scene and their native tongue. A number of websites have been set-up to clarify the nuances that can be lost in translation. I found the below book particularly helpful for this purpose:

Regardless of what you think about Charlie Hebdo’s apparent moderation on content related to Islam, to call them ‘cowards’ is deeply ignorant.

Stephen Knight is host of The #GSPodcast. You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.