"And the world will live as ONE"

The terror attack on the satirical French magazine, Charlie Hebdo that happened in Paris last week has brought up two controversial and global topics: free speech and religious fundamentalism and extremism.

After the attack the outpouring of the #JeSuisCharlie and #ImCharlie hashtags has raised in the social media as response. It is meant to show solidarity with the victims as well as a defence of free speech.

However, discussions about this event covers two completely different cultures, we can see clearly here a clash of cultures.

On one side, it is France, which has Liberalism as its political philosophy and "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité" (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) as its motto. In France, a liberal democracy, where everybody has its right of free speech, to share its different views and ideas, satire has a significant role. Satire is a genre of literature and it can be seen as a tool to address and criticise current institutions and issues in society such as political and religious. 

However, on the other hand of this case, it is the Muslim community. In the Islam, there is a principle which says that the Prophet Muhammad can not be depicted, many Muslims see any representation of the Prophet Muhammad as disrespectful, as denigration of Islam, but Charlie Hebdo went even further with crude and offensive caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad naked and in sexual poses. 

As the sociologist Jean-Mariw Charon (2015, cited by Carvajal & Daley, The New York Times) states "The French like their satire. The idea is to be irreverent, that irony and criticism are good things. But it is true that this is perhaps not part of everybody's culture". Charlie Hedbo not only mocks Muslims, but also Catholics, Jews and politicians.

"100 lashes if you don't die of laughter!"

"Love is stronger than hate"

"I am the Prophet, 
asshole!" "Shut up, infidel!"

"Don't make fun!"

“Yes to wearing the burqa …
 on the inside!”

"The Koran is worthless - 
it doesn't even stop bullets!"

Charlie Hebdo, cover cartoons, viewed 8 January 2015, http://www.vox.com/2015/1/7/7507883/charlie-hebdo-explained-covers, http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2011/11/02/charlie-hebdo-french-satire-magazine-s-shocking-covers-photos.html#53089133-c5ea-4170-8460-52312e20d451

"Finally free!"

The Pope in Rio: "Ready for anything
to solicit clients!"

Vatican: Another rigged election! “Let me down, I want to vote!”

"The Father, The Son,
and The Holy Spirit."

The Pope goes too far! “This is my body!”
(holding a condom).

“The true story of the baby Jesus.” 

Charlie Hebdo, cover cartoons, viewed 8 January 2015, http://qz.com/322550/charlie-hebdo-has-had-more-legal-run-ins-with-christians-than-with-muslims/

Presenting just a few of the cover images that the magazine has published could be misleading, given that the offensive images of the Prophet Muhammad were inside the magazine and not published by the news due to their offensive character.

So for me, the question raised here is: How far does the right of free speech extend?Those vulgar cartoons were extremely offensive, it was disrespect to a religion and a culture. In my view, free speech should be used with responsibility and respect, avoiding speeches that foment hatred like racism and discrimination, humiliation and offence.

Of course, in my view, NOTHING justifies the  bloodshed, an action against humanity that happened at Charlie Hebdo offices.

Pope, D 2015, cartoon, viewed 8 January 2015,
 https://twitter.com/davpope/status/552844593046097920/photo/1

This event was for me, the lack of respect for a religion, insults at a people retaliated with more intolerance, cruelty and violence by a group of fundamentalists. These kind of people that believe in terror attack as revenge, represent the worst in humanity: people unable to dialogue.

Unfortunately, another issue that comes along with the religious fundamentalism, specially with the violent attacks of fundamentalist Islamic groups is generalisation. Many link Muslims with terrorism. And Charlie Hebdo cartoons depicting Muslims with guns and making references to violence help to increase this generalisation, and thus they spread prejudice, racism, discrimination, islamophobia, xenophobia and intolerance. These feelings, in turn, increase even more the terrorism.

According to Karima Bennoune (2014), the author of the book "Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism", it is completely wrong believe that Muslims condone terrorism. Actually, people of Muslim heritage are more likely to be victims of this violence, as pointed out by Bennoune only 15% of Al Qaeda's victims between 2004 and 2008 were Westerners, the majority were Muslims. Therefore, a great deal of Muslims fight against Muslim fundamentalism and terrorism, Bennoune describes these popular fights as "one of the most important and overlooked human rights struggles in the world". However, those people and several fundamentalist attacks against Muslim communities are largely ignored and neglected by international community (Bennoune 2014).

Indeed, many Muslims around the world have condemned the use of violence to respond to insults: 

Now, there you are another cartoon to make you think:

Stanley, P 2013, Imagine – John Lennon, cartoon, viewed 8 January 2015, http://www.stanleycolors.com/2013/09/imagine-john-lennon/

"This is NOT an anti-religion/atheist-propaganda comic. The comic and the song (at least as I understand it) tries to communicate that no matter your faith, we should all share the world in peace… As silly as that sounds." (Stanley, 2013)

References: 
Bennoune, K 2014, When people of Muslim heritage challenge fundamentalism, TED online video, March 2014, accessed 9 January 2015, http://www.ted.com/talks/karima_bennoune_the_side_of_terrorism_that_doesn_t_make_headlines

Carvajal, D & Daley, S 2015, 'Proud to Offend, Charlie Hebdo Carries Torch of Political Provocation', The New York Times, 7 January, viewed 8 January 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/world/europe/charlie-hebdo-broke-taboos-defying-threats-and-violence.html