By Catie Byrne, Staff Writer

Published in print Feb. 11, 2015

Tuesday, Feb. 3, Dr. Cybelle McFadden of the department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and Dr. Omar Ali of the African American and African Diaspora Studies Program held a lecture in Curry auditorium to discuss Paris, Islam and Race.

Ali began with an overview of the history of Islam to establish a basis of understanding of the religious politics in France, which has the largest concentration of Muslims in Europe. In turn, McFadden shed light on France’s history of secularism and why the French deeply value freedom of speech.

An open discussion with audience members shifted to different perspectives on the Charlie Hebdo shooting; namely, the importance and limitations of freedom of speech and its consequences in regards to religious rights for Muslims in France.

Ali set up a Skype call with former student Dareke Clements, a dancer currently living in France, who weighed in on the differences that American and French media treated the Hebdo shooting.

“Similar to the U.S.’s feelings about 9/11, I see an emphasis on media discussing accountability, the words terrorist and Muslims used almost interchangeably in blame, but Islam did not cause this, and Muslims don’t need to apologize. In French culture, the reaction in media has been quite different. It is somewhat about free speech, but people in France know it isn’t Muslims’ [fault].”

French woman Sarah Peterson stood and agreed with Clements’ sentiments about French media, and described a breaking news headline in France to be generally devoid of partisan views or opinion. However, Peterson contended that many Americans did not understand Charlie Hebdo’s satire. She conceded that yes, images depicting Muhammad and Muslims were offensive, but that these images were mocking certain political party’s offensive views about Muslims, and not Islam itself.

Audience member Travis Goins said in response, “Freedom of speech is something we all want but don’t agree on, [but] what you say has consequences, [it] offended a group of people. Look at it from their perspective, there is an association of Islam with terrorism, but why is this case so important? No one talks about Boko Haram.”

Nick Russo stood and asked Clements why Americans don’t hear much about terrorism outside of Islam, to which Clements said, “Terrorism is outside of Islam, many groups justify terrorist actions by their faith. There are other bombings and acts of terrorism by Americans who claim to be Christian, but Christianity is never to blame.”

Ahmad Aljasser, president of UNCG’s Muslim Student Association, felt that terrorism is more political in motive than religious.

“Note the intentions of attackers; terrorists list motives. People ask, ‘Why kill civilians’, their [terrorists’] response is, ‘Why kill people in Iraq?’ It’s a political agenda.”

Ali closed the lecture with sentiments of creating a dialogue of understanding among different groups. “There are multiple perspectives and there are no simple answers, the thing we can do is try to get to know each other through conversation.”