Charlie Hebdo and Free Speech Fundamentalists

The Charlie Hebdo episode is another event potentially indicating resentment against the Muslim World and by extension perhaps Islam too. Last week saw a terrible event. 17 people killed in Paris and several hostages taken who were later rescued. 11 staff members of the French weekly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were killed by Saeed Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, brothers. It was supposed to be a revenge for publishing cartoons mocking Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) that offended Muslims worldwide. Another masked gunman, took several hostages at a Jewish kosher supermarket, later identified as Amedi Coulibaly. He killed 6 others including a Muslim policeman Ahmed Merabet.

Across the world, terrorist attacks were condemned while European media asserted its right to Freedom of Expression. The cartoons were published in many other European magazines and newspapers. Over 1.6 million people marched in Paris to demonstrate against terrorism. The rally was led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and of course, the French President François Hollande. Very surprisingly, two other unlikely leaders who led this “unity rally” were Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the president of Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Mahmoud Abbas. However, an expected world leader Barack Obama was absent. Only the US ambassador to France, Jane Hartley was seen.

Apparently, it isn’t just Muslims who get offended. I’m fed up with the hypocrisy of the free speech fundamentalists” (Huffington Post)

The crowds included Jews wearing skullcaps and Muslims carrying signs that read, “I am Charlie and Muslim” and “Not in the Name of Allah”. Mustafa Qadeer, 32, a Pakistani working in London as an environmental consultant, had also participated. “We cannot go on like this”, he said, “living in a state of fear. There must be liberty of expression; expression cannot be met with violence.” “What happened was terrible and it does not represent Muslims.” Also marching was Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of the Great Mosque of Paris and president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith. Another Muslim protester said, “Our religion is the religion of love. Our religion loves Jews… loves Christians. We are not terrorists.” “We are all Muslim.” (New York Times; CNN)

Islam while prohibiting such heinous crimes against humanity, urges its adherents to respond wisely against abuse and blasphemy. The Qur’an says, in Surah Qalam, “By the pen and that which they write! You (O Muhammad) are not, by the favour of your Lord, a madman. And verily, your reward will indeed be unfailing. And behold! You (O Muhammad) are of lofty nature. And you will see, and they will see, who among you is the demented. Your Lord is best aware of him who strays away from His way, and He is best aware of those on guidance. Therefore, pay no heed to these liars, who want you to square (your mission) with them. And pay no heed to those despicable perpetual swearers, detractors, going around with malicious gossip, who hinder the good, sinful transgressors cruel and illicitly conceived.” ( 68 : 1 to 13 )

Prophet Muhammad and his Companions faced many slanders during their lifetimes. But they didn’t even react verbally, forget about being violent. The didactic ethos of Islamic advice about the pen and its power and knowledge seem to have been lost today in the heap of ignorance that is consuming many a Muslim land.

Most of the West claims that publishing those cartoons is a Freedom of Thought & Expression. This freedom is quite a pickle in the world. India also has freedom of expression as a constitutional fundamental right but it is limited to sober lines. Secularism and Freedom mean different in different places of the world. In India you see people of all cultures and religions proudly donning their peculiar attires. Come Ganesh Puja or Eid, the whole roads are closed and traffic diverted. But France calls itself secular while Muslims are prohibited from praying in public places and Muslim women banned from wearing burqa.

Freedom of expression is useful as long as it doesn’t go over the line. But this kind of freedom apparently in Europe knows no limits. Some 3.7 million people marched in France to denounce those terrorist attacks of January 7. It’s a statistical reality that if you offend a 1.6 billion huge community, a dozen fanatical hotheads would be willing to go on killing spree. Similar are the reasons behind the assassinations of Benazir Bhutto and Indira Gandhi. Some great men were assassinated for standing for a good cause; like Mahatma Gandhi, John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

Mahatma Gandhi had said, “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values and your values become your destiny.”

Nevertheless, this Freedom of Expression is not well-balanced in the West after all. The national motto of France is “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”. While such mockery of Muslim faith is tolerated, peaceful pro-Palestine demonstrations are banned. Dr. Zakir Naik is also banned from entering Canada and the UK for “unacceptable behaviour”. France was the first country to ban Muslim women from wearing Hijab(burqa) in public while nudity is appreciated there.

In 2009, a veteran French cartoonist Maurice Sinet was dismissed from the same Charlie Hebdo magazine for writing a satirical column. He wrote that the former French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s son would want to convert to Judaism to get a better social status. Upon this, the Charlie Hebdo editor asked Sinet to apologise for “inciting hatred against Jews”. Sinet exclaimingly refused and got sacked. This decision to fire him was supported by a group of eminent intellectuals in 2009. The column was called as an anti-Semitic remark. Oliver Cyran, a former journalist at Charlie Hebdo had argued in 2013 that “an Islamophobic neurosis gradually took over” the magazine after the 9/11. (Telegraph; January 2009)

Weren’t you sickened to see Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of a country that was responsible for the killing of seven journalists in Gaza in 2014, attend the “unity rally” in Paris?

Jyllands Posten, the Danish newspaper that published Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) cartoons in 2005 had rejected to publish cartoons mocking Jesus Christ because they would “provoke an outcry” and proudly declared it would “in no circumstances publish Holocaust cartoons”.(Huffington Post) Also in 2005, France’s Catholic Church won a court injunction to ban a clothing advertisement that showed an all-females version of The Last Supper, which included a female Christ. The Last Supper was originally a famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci showing Jesus Christ and his 12 disciples. So the garment advertisement was banned in France and Italy. The French court ruled that the display was “a gratuitous and aggressive act of intrusion on people’s innermost beliefs”. (BBC; March 2005)

Double standards ? That too has high limits. The “unity rally” was led by European leaders on January 11 to denounce terrorism and murder of 17 civilians. Ironically, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also walked with them. They have a custom of bombing Palestinian land and killing thousands of civilians, many of them children. How come those leaders who came out to denounce terrorism, never denounced the state-terrorism by Israel ? Their Zionist friend walking by them and his fabricated State are officially guilty of hundreds of war crimes and genocides. Why is there such an astounding contrast ? Is terrorism legitimate if it is done by a sophisticated state agency ? Is the support for tolerance conditional ? More surprising was the fact that Mahmoud Abbas, president of PLO, also walked beside Netanyahu. Will the Western leaders and their friends unite only against the misnomer Islamist terrorism and not against secular democratic Zionist terrorism ? Is it because Israel is directly and indirectly funded by them?

In the words of Mehdi Hasan, a prominent British journalist, “let’s be clear: I agree there is no justification whatsoever for gunning down journalists or cartoonists. I disagree with your seeming view that the right to offend comes with no corresponding responsibility; and I do not believe that a right to offend automatically translates into a duty to offend.

Are Muslims expected to have thicker skins than their Christian and Jewish brethren ? Do you want Muslims to laugh at a cartoon of the Prophet and ignore the vilification of Islam across the continent and the widespread discrimination against Muslims in France? You ask Muslims to denounce a handful of extremists as an existential threat to free speech while turning a blind eye to the much bigger threat to it posed by your elected leaders.

Weren’t you sickened to see Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of a country that was responsible for the killing of seven journalists in Gaza in 2014, attend the “unity rally” in Paris? They were joined by Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany where Holocaust denial is punishable by up to five years in prison, and David Cameron, who wants to ban non-violent “extremists” committed to the “overthrow of democracy” from appearing on television.

Apparently, it isn’t just Muslims who get offended. I’m fed up with the hypocrisy of the free speech fundamentalists” (Huffington Post)