We need to rethink radical Islam's appeal

Minute of silence in Lille, 16 November. Demotix/ David Pauwels. All rights reserved.The terrorist attacks in Paris, whose vivid display of brutality we can hardly ignore, compel us to awake from our ‘dogmatic slumber’ as only bloodbaths can. The danger that this call is exploited by those who thrive on hate and paranoia – as well as our all-too-familiar tendency to forgo thought for the sake of ‘action’ in moments like these –further speak to the necessity of honest and serious reflection on our part.

Slavoj Žižek took up the task, proposing that we dispense with those ‘leftist taboos’ that have become too costly to maintain. One of them concerns the failings of our multicultural tolerance.

“Fundamentalist Muslims find it impossible to bear our blasphemous images and reckless humor, which we consider a part of our freedoms,” Žižek writes, “Western liberals, likewise, finds it impossible to bear many practices of Muslim culture.”