Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Leaving after loosing hope for change

Iran "A wave of killings that shook a nation"

The Islamophobe Dutch politician Geert Wilders is organising a cartoon competition to depict the prophet Mohammed. Here is what Alain Badiou wrote in the aftermath of the attack on Charlie Hebdo : "Here and there, people say that  Charlie Hebdo ’s cartoons aren’t attacking Muslims as such, but rather the fundamentalists’ terrorist activity. That is objectively false. Let’s take a typical example of their cartoons: we see two naked buttocks and the caption ‘Et le cul de Mahomet, on a le droit?’ (‘And what about Mohammed’s arse – can we use that?’). So is the Muslim faithful’s Prophet, a constant target for such stupidity, a contemporary terrorist? No, that’s not any kind of politics. It’s got nothing to do with the solemn defence of ‘freedom of expression’. It is a ridiculous, provocative obscenity targeting Islam itself – and that’s all. And it’s nothing more than third-rate cultural racism, a ‘joke’ to amuse the local pissed-up Front National supporter.  It may be amusi...

Confessions of a foreigner Scratch beneath the surface... I am a person who engages only in matters of substance and matters which the British generally don't like to talk about or feel uncomfortable when they hear them. It disturbs their faith. Here are two examples:  1. I made a mistake the other day and has a chat with an English. A woman openly said to me: "a language teacher must not express his/her political/cultural views in class. "What about freedom of speech," I asked. She went silent then she said: "but you are a language teacher, why should you talk about other things?" I asked whether what she said had anything to do with the fact that students are considered customers and my views might annoy/upset them, unlike in other countries where students do not pay £9,000+ for their higher education. She agreed, but still opposed me expressing my views in class.  This is not an isolated case in my life in London. A couple of years agao I upset ...

"Rocking the foundations of Islam" The title is ridiculous. Yes, it is reductionist to say that one man, the narrator Bukhari, means Islam. It is also reductionist to imply, through the title of the article, that a book refuting al-Bukhari rocks the foundations of "Islam". 

“The [Charlie Hebdo] cartoon simply fails as satire, because it is indistinguishable from straightforward racist graffiti.”  Charlie Hebdo , The Poverty of Satire " Whatever the variety of causes we could discuss, the fact is that the Muslim – from Mohammed to our own time – became  Charlie Hebdo ’s ‘bad object of desire’ . Mocking Muslims and making fun of their mannerisms became this declining ‘comedic’ magazine’s stock in trade, a bit like how a century ago  Bécassine  made fun of the poor (and at that time, Christian…) peasants who came from Brittany to wipe the arses of the children of the Parisian bourgeoisie."