Unbowed

With admirable spunk, staffers of the weekly French publication Charlie Hebdo are putting out an issue this week, as scheduled, that promises to be as irreverently satirical as ever.

A former staffer would only tell CNN that the cover cartoon was ready, but she would not confirm reports that the issue would include a want ad for cartoonists. As we all know, the paper lost four cartoonists who were among the most well known in France.

Reports said the next issue would have a million copies – a huge leap from its regular circulation of about 100,000. That abominable attack on the paper’s office last week gave Charlie Hebdo international cachet. With a global platform, the publication has gained a powerful voice that refuses to be cowed into silence.

That former staffer had a touching assessment of the murderers and their kindred spirits: “They are so weak they are afraid of cartoons… but the cartoons will defeat them.”

Apart from giving Charlie Hebdo a global platform, the attack seems to have given moderate Muslims a stronger voice. We’ve heard a lot of condemnation by Muslims of the massacre. The common sentiment is that Islamic extremists are hijacking the faith. Outside a Paris mosque a sign declared: “Not in my name.”

Even the leader of Hezbollah – a group that does not shy away from the use of lethal violence – has condemned the mass murder, saying the extremists have offended the Prophet Muhammad more than Western satirical cartoons.

Such messages should be reassuring for those who worry that the worst is yet to come, in Europe and other places where Islamist terrorists operate.  This is the warning of certain security analysts, who said the killing by the French police of the three suspects in the Charlie Hebdo attack was certain to attract retaliation. And for the message to be effective, the retaliation would have to be dramatic in its atrocity.

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Fear is the most potent weapon of terrorists. Sow terror and they change society. Instill fear and they put an end to a way of life.

Refusing to succumb to fear is the biggest challenge after a deadly attack because, let’s face it, we’re only human. Most people value their life; most people have loved ones they don’t want to leave behind, especially those still too young to fend for themselves.

Our paper’s artist, Rene Aranda, has also received death threats from people offended by his satirical cartoons on the Abu Sayyaf and (before the peace treaty) the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. One caller even recited the plate number of Rene’s car. Rene took a break from spoofing the two groups – but only briefly.

It has been pointed out that the anti-religious Charlie Hebdo has satirized all faiths and their leaders. Popes are fair game, and not just for Charlie Hebdo. When Germany’s Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope and became Benedict XVI, he was spoofed all over as Cardinal “Nazi-nger” for his hardline stance on Catholic dogma. Surely there were Catholics who were offended, but not sufficiently to kill and be killed in Benedict’s name (slain French brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi said they wanted to become martyrs).

A common question after the Paris massacre is how many other Islamists are prepared to commit mass murder to defend the honor of their Prophet – as a statement purportedly from al-Qaeda in Yemen declared in explaining the attack.  

It’s good to hear all those voices of moderation from the Muslim world condemning the Paris attack and voicing solidarity against extremism. But let’s hope the broadcast networks aren’t giving us only what we want to hear, and aren’t filtering out, inadvertently or subconsciously, the voices of those who believe their faith is no laughing matter. Where do you draw the line between respecting this and endangering free expression?

That statement of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah was revealing. While condemning the attack on Charlie Hebdo, he did say that the massacre was “more” offensive to the Prophet Muhammad than Western satirical cartoons. He fell short of saying that the cartoons were not offensive.

In 2006 at the height of the debate on the Danish cartoons, several journalists said they actually found the cartoons in poor taste and bordering on Islamophobia (a charge that the former Charlie Hebdo staffer said was also previously hurled – unfairly, she emphasized – against their paper). Yet the journalists also said they would defend the freedom of the Danish publication to offend.

But there were also journalists who wanted to know if an entire nation should suffer from the views of one publication. And there are people, especially in Asia, who believe absolute freedom is anarchy, that free speech has its limits and must be exercised, like all other rights, with responsibility.

Even with all the heartening declarations that the attack on Charlie Hebdo isn’t Islam, the events in Paris have revived discussions about the so-called clash of civilizations.

Like it or not, it has also reinforced certain stereotypes about Muslims living in Western democracies. I have seen this up close several times. Not long ago while traveling overseas with journalists from several Muslim countries, for example, we stopped over at a YWCA for a toilet break. Our guide advised us to ignore the woman manning the front desk and just head straight for the toilet. I did as told and had no problem. But my veiled Muslim colleague, who was behind me, was accosted and told that the place was for members only. She didn’t press it.

Such profiling makes life difficult for Muslims in the West in many aspects including finding jobs. This in turn can breed the kind of resentment that fuels extremism. An Associated Press report cited an observation that the Muslim community in France is “under-represented in the corridors of power, over-represented in prison.”

With the deaths of the suspects in the Charlie Hebdo attack, the French aren’t the only ones who are bracing for more extremist violence. Americans and their allies are on high alert. The Australians have been on heightened alert since the recent lone wolf Islamist attack on a coffee shop. Yesterday the Germans faced an arson attack on a Hamburg newspaper that reprinted some of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons.

Alongside the security alert, the French are showing that they’re not going to be cowed into giving up their ideals of liberty and changing their way of life. Doing otherwise will give terrorists the victory they want.