This was how New York Times European correspondent Steven Erlanger described the situation in France after violent attacks in the country’s capital shocked the whole nation.
The series of attacks started on January 5 at the office compound of Charlie Hebdo, a controversial French satirical magazine. The killers, later identified as brothers Chérif Kouachi and Saïd Kouachi, were members of the Yemen branch of the international terrorist group al-Qaeda. The attacks left a total of 17 people dead, including five from a gas station robbery and a supermarket hostage-taking a few days later. It is considered as one of the worst security crises on French soil in decades.
This was not the first time Charlie Hebdo was targeted by violent extremists. In 2011, the magazine’s office was hit by a firebomb and its website hacked. Two years later, editor Stephane Charbonnier, along with three other staff members of the magazine, was put under al-Qaeda’s most wanted list.
Like these incidents, the most recent attack was triggered by the iconoclastic depiction of the Prophet Muhammad. Before the firebombing of its office and the hacking of the website, the magazine featured a cartoon of Muhammad in one of its cover issues. The cover contains a speech balloon that shows the Prophet as saying, “100 lashes if you don’t die laughing.” In another issue, the magazine featured Muhammad in pornographic poses.
Je Suis Charlie
Following the attack, thousands of people stormed the streets of Paris and other parts of France to show solidarity with the victims. This was followed by similar demonstrations and candle vigils in different parts of the world. In London, around 2,000 demonstrators gathered in Trafalgar Square and sang the French national anthem. In New York, a crowd gathered at Union Square and lit candles to show their support for France and condemn terrorism.
The supporters adopted the slogan, “Je Suis Charlie (I am Charlie).” The slogan soon became viral in social media websites such as Twitter, where people used the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie along with changing their profile pictures with the slogan.
In an article by the Huffington Post, Joachim Roncin, the music journalist and artistic director who created the slogan, said that it is his way of expressing sorrow for the victims. “I made this image because I am at a loss for words (about the incident),” he said.
Various media outlets also showed their support for Charlie Hebdo. English-language media organizations, such as Bloomberg News and Huffington Post, reposted cartoons of the magazine in their websites. Other non-English language publications, such as Germany’s Berliner Kurier, reprinted cartoons in their magazines, with one showing a cover of Muhammad reading Charlie Hebdo while bathing in blood.
The Islamic community also condemned the violence. In his opinion article for The Guardian, Tariq Ramadan, PhD, a prominent Muslim scholar, commented about the attackers’ justification for violence. “They said they were avenging the prophet. That was wrong… It is the message of Islam, our principles and values, that have been betrayed and tainted,” he said.
Freedom of expression
While the Islamic community denounced the killings, they still found the magazine’s works unacceptable. The New York Times quoted Elsa Ray, the spokeswoman of the Paris-based Collective against Islamophobia in France, as saying, “The freedom of expression may be guaranteed by the French Constitution, but there is a limit when it goes too far and turns into hatred, and stigmatization.”
In an interview with The GUIDON, Atty. Elgene Feliciano, an instructor in the Communication Department who teaches media law and ethics, explains that although freedom of expression is a fundamental right, it’s not an all-encompassing right. He cited certain examples of its limits such as hate speech, which he defined as “something that is devoid of social, artistic and political value… and that incites people to commit violence.”
Muslims and non-Muslims alike have also criticized Western media for their biased representation of Charlie Hebdo as a staunch defender of the right to freedom of expression.
“[With] Charlie Hebdo falling as victim in this situation, it’s easy to say that they are the poster child for freedom of expression,” Feliciano said. He further explained that the victims could be a symbol for freedom of expression “only until that part where they have been victimized for exercising the said right.” “Where it becomes an aspect of hate speech… we should be critical enough to see that media shouldn’t be able to dictate that upon us,” he reminded.
Many have also condemned the magazine’s double standard on free speech concerning religion. Ramadan cited an event in the past in which the magazine fired an employee for publishing work that contained anti-Semitic content. When he asked where the freedom of expression was in that situation, Ramadan wrote, “I was told that… there are limits, not everything can be said.” After this, Charlie Hebdo continued to publish numerous works with anti-Islamic content.
Clash of civilizations
The attack has sparked a debate between free speech and religious tolerance. Some have even gone as far as depicting the attack as part of a “clash of civilizations” between the West and Islam.
However, many Muslims and non-Muslims disagree with this belief. Ramadan said that using the actions of terrorists as evidence that there is a war between Islam and the West would only lead to actual war. He cited the War on Terror, which was a universal response to the 9/11 attack, as an example of a hysterical reaction to an action of a marginal violent group. The war has plunged the West and Islam into years of battle, at a cost of millions of lives.
In an email interview with The GUIDON, Political Science Assistant Professor Alma Salvador, PhD said that the issue is not only about the debate between free speech and religious tolerance but also about marginalization and radicalization of cultural groups. She explained, “Muslim migration into Europe does not lead to assimilation and integration, thereby entrenching a multi-dimensional divide between European Union and Islam values and Muslim radicalization.”
“This ‘civilizational clash’ does not apply to all Muslims all over the world,” Salvador said, citing a New York Times editorial article. “One will have to distinguish between Muslims who are tolerant, on one hand, and those [who are] ‘totalitarian,’” she said.
Meanwhile, Ramadan believes that the whole idea of a religion and culture-based clash of civilizations only breeds violent extremism. “The most we can reasonably say now is that we are at war with violent extremists, wherever they are coming from,” he said.
