The Morality of Murder
The ‘Charlie Hebdo’ Attackers, Like So Many People Who Use Violence, Probably Thought They Were Acting Righteously
The Charlie Hebdo massacre was utterly despicable. To nearly everyone, including nearly all Muslims, what the perpetrators did was a terrible moral transgression. From everything I’ve read about the events, there is no doubt that the perpetrators were morally motivated, feeling that they were doing just what virtue required, avenging the satirical publication’s insults to Muhammad. For the killers, the background to the blasphemous cartoons was the humiliation and violence Americans committed against Abu Ghraib prisoners, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, drone killings of Muslims, and so on. Cherif …
