‘Charlie Hebdo killings manipulated against Muslims’

The aftermaths of the recent attacks in Paris on an office of Charlie Hebdo satirical publication continue. While the world has already become united in condemning the violence, criticisms are also emerging against what many believe is a blatant manipulation of what occurred in Paris against Muslims. This, they say, is specifically visible through a recent boost in the anti-terrorism rhetoric by global powers that followed the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

Anna O’Leary, an Ireland-based journalist and political commentator, told Press TV that the violence in Paris has already encouraged countries like the US and Britain to be more aggressive in their “supposed war on terrorism”.

O’Leary said the ultimate target of this war is the ISIL that has waged insurgency wars in Iraq and Syria for months now. However, she questioned the authenticity of concerns by the US and Britain about the terrorist group considering that the ISIL, as the Belfast-based activist said, is their own creation.

“This is about the Islamic State which I believe is a creation just as the al-Qaeda was a creation and is a tool of great powers of America and Israel as a group together,” she told Press TV’s UK Desk in an exclusive interview.

“If they could get their troops out of the Middle East, they would not be troubling the Muslims so much. There are lots of very peaceful Muslims and a few that they are antagonizing would not be so antagonized if America were not bombing and sending any drones and killing innocent people around the world and using the American media, which is dominantly Jewish-owned, to discredit Muslim people.”

O’Leary further said the Charlie Hebdo killings should not provide an excuse for publishing more anti-Islamic materials – what many believe could eventually fuel violence worldwide.

“Millions of peaceful Muslims find the Charlie Hebdo’s Islamic cartoons just as offensive as they find the fundamentalists who stormed and massacred the staff in Charlie Hebdo in Paris. We can all be offended by attacks or aggressive criticism of our beliefs,” she said.