“Se não estão satisfeitos em viver num país liberal, podem emigrar e deixem-nos em paz”
“If you are not satisfied living in a liberal country, you can emigrate and leave us at peace.”
Sheik Munir, Imam of Lisbon
- The attacks on Charlie Hebdon must be condemned and firmly denounced as the workings of individuals, motivated by their fringe, extremist Muslim beliefs. They were a heinous deed that taints the 7th December in dark infamy. Attacks like these are never justified. Their target on journalists, who are the manifestation of freedom of expression, should receive from us a steadfast and unwavering commitment to protecting freedom.
- Some on the left have claimed that in doing so, we’re discussing dead moral questions – after all, who disagrees that the attacks were awful? Nobody. But ten years ago, when cartoons like this first appeared, political leaders were urging self-censure or ‘responsibility’ to moderate our freedom of expression. That is not a dead moral question. Freedom of expression is intrinsically good and political leaders should not limit it, through the force of laws or through calls for ‘responsibility’.
- The religion of the attacks is not irrelevant, for it was their motive. Too often, however, criminals who are muslim are singled out for being muslim when such a fact is irrelevant. The result is a (c)overt campaign of islamophobia that leaves ordinary, law-abiding, well-meaning Muslims (probably something like 99.99999% of them) afraid to wear the veil and express their faith.
- This is particularly the case in France where the Muslim minority – many of which are settlers from Algeria and other former colonies – are constantly marginalized and attacked. This is the country where the Front National, a fascist political party, wins elections. In defending freedom of speech and criticizing these attacks, which never should have happened, we cannot ‘blank out’ what Charlie Hebdo was. Its cartoons were often racist, homophobic islamophobic and xenophobic. Obviously, they didn’t deserve to get killed over them. Nobody does.
- Some will use this attack as an opportunity to repudiate multiculturalism — Nigel Farage already has done. Multiculturalism does not divide us. It was not multiculturalism that caused these attacks. Multiculturalism makes us richer and stronger as a culture and as a people. In a world facing increasingly global problems, it makes no sense to shut ourselves off from the rest of the world. We have so much to learn from each other, in a true Alliance of Civilizations that elevates us to our highest common denominator – humanity. That is what the attack on Charlie Hebdo was – an attack on humanity. All should condemn it, just like all should condemn any other kind of attack on freedom, including islamophobia and racism.
- Finally, it is sad that Western Europe (esp. continental Europe) only wakes up to issues of freedom of expression when several white journalists get killed for it. Across the world, people are being prosecuted and dying because they cannot speak their mind – trade unionists in Iran, students in Mexico. In the West itself, protest is often quashed with police violence. When speaking of police violence, we cannot forget of course the deaths of Mike Brown and Eric Gardner, who were just two of the many People of Color killed because by police because of who they were. Surely, we are better than this. Or we can be, anyway.
All these things are true. But in spite, or perhaps because of them all, what I most want to say today is:
