Why we should all stand behind Charlie Hebdo
Article published more than two years ago.
After the January attacks that killed 11 of their journalists, Charlie Hebdo found itself on the receiving end of a lot of criticism. People argued it went “too far” in its satire of religion as it had offended muslims. This rhetoric legitimates the terrorists’ cause, portrays the victims as offenders and the terrorists as victims. Worse, it contradicts our values of free speech. We should all stand unconditionally behind Charlie Hebdo, support its right to mock religion and its right to offend.
Anybody who has read Charlie Hebdo would know that it is surely not racist, and that it des not have an “obsession” with Islam. In fact more than 80% of their covers about religion were devoted to Christianity and Judaism. More importantly, Charlie Hebdo didn’t write about Muslims, Christians or Jews. It wrote (or drew) about Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, a simple yet vital distinction. While any form of racism or discrimination towards a group of people is unacceptable, it is not an offence to mock a religion, which after all, is nothing else than an ideology which finds its sources in several texts. Condemning a religion or some aspects of it is not tantamount to condemning the individuals from that religion. As some seem to forget, Islam is not a race.
The complete freedom to caricature religions is one of the pillars of the free and tolerant societies we are lucky to live in. It is what 18th century philosophers fought for, and it is what Islamic fanatics are fighting to suppress. We cannot make even the slightest of compromise, the slightest step in their direction. The right to question any set of beliefs, the liberty to denounce religious practices is the best weapon we have against religious extremism. We must stop dismissing every criticism of religion as discriminatory.
And let’s not forget, criticism of religions often does more good than harm. It bans child marriages, stops nations from stoning gay people, liberates women. We should not let ourselves be intimidated, not by religious fanatics nor by political correctness. We need to remember what enlightenment philosophers taught us, and defend freedom of speech rather than freedom from speech. Sensitivity based censorship is a dangerous idea.
In fact, those who want to protect Islam from ridicule are utterly condescending: Muslims are not oversensitive children who need special protection from offence. Even worse, by refusing that Islam be subject to scrutiny, by implicitly enforcing blasphemy laws, they betray all the reformists in the Muslim world who courageously fight against religious dogmatism and for minority rights, freedom of faith, gender equality. They side with the Islamists, against the free thinkers.
At a time where religious fanaticism is spreading fast, it is more important than ever to be courageous in defending our freedom, our right to offend. If we are not capable of doing so then we have lost. If Charlie Hebdo decide to stop harming people in their faith, then the fanatics have terrorised us into submission and we have given in to their intolerance.
