Neither Charlie nor Kouachi

In France, the attack on Charlie Hebdo on January 7, 2015, was mindless and deplorable, however provocative and irreverent the comical weekly may have been. After 12 people were killed in the main attack on the weekly magazine and another five in subsequent acts of violence, the country is in mourning. But it is not just in mourning, there is a lot of anger. People are angry as they were angry in the US and the UK after 9/11 and 7/7.
These are the times when the national narrative in any country gets fully dominated by the institutions of the state and by the political forces harbouring conservatism and narrow nationalism. The growing anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment is now creating a major wave across Europe with people coming out in large numbers even in countries like Germany that have suffered hugely at the hands of racism, fascism and intolerance. People are taking to the streets to prevent ‘Islamisation’ of their continent. In France, Marine Le Pen’s ultra-right National Front is best poised to ride this wave. Being a politician, whether a socialist or not, the current French President Francois Hollande will get drifted further towards the right in the name of curbing terrorism in order to contain the wave going against him and his party.
To give an example, one such act of drifting further towards right became evident in days after the attack on the magazine. France, whose parliament voted in favour of recognising the Palestinian state on November 29, 2014, warmly hosted Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who wreaked havoc in Gaza just recently in the name of his country’s right to self-defence. Netanyahu was there to participate in the march for the victims of Charlie Hebdo held in Paris earlier this month.
Influential elements within the French Socialist Party, of which Hollande is a longstanding leader, did not like their president’s unequivocal support to Netanyahu when he was bombing Gaza. The president did not mention the Palestinian victims once to the Israeli prime minister. Therefore, the parliament voting in favour of the Palestinian state was an act of redemption on the part of the political party President Hollande belongs to. But the attack on Charlie Hebdo is likely to change things in the face of mounting popular pressure against Muslims at large and Arabs in particular in France and other countries.
The fallout on the already tense race relations across Europe is becoming visible by each passing day. The Kouachi brothers who attacked the magazine were French citizens of Algerian origin. Algeria remained a French colony for long and became independent after a bloody liberation war in the latter half of the twentieth century. There is a love-hate relationship between the Algerians and the French like is the case with other colonies and colonisers. Immigration from former colonies as well as other third-world countries is a huge issue in French politics like it is an issue with other European countries.
Also, it is said that 60 percent of the prison population in France is Muslims of Arab-North African origin. France is on top of the list when it comes to countries which interfere in personal laws of communities like curbing their Muslim women citizens from wearing a veil. France also stopped people from anti-war activist groups from protesting on the streets of Paris against Israeli attacks on Gaza. Collectively, all this had complicated the situation even before the attacks.
On the other hand, when writers and commentators across the Muslim world wrote and many Arab cartoonists drew in support of Charlie Hebdo and against the act of terrorism committed against the magazine, the issue of the magazine coming after the fatal attack on its staff published the insulting caricatures of the Prophet of Islam once again. This immediate and reactive act of defiance in the name of exercising what it calls its right to freedom of expression, the magazine isolated those in Muslim societies who were speaking in its favour and put at risk their lives.
A magazine that would sell 45000 copies otherwise reached half-a-million mark. But the act has led to protests not just across the Muslim world but in so many other countries where Muslims live. And the protests were big. The left-wing and anti-war groups across Europe and North America are also speaking against Charlie Hebdo besides severely criticising the measures taken or being proposed to be taken against the immigrant populations, most of whom will be Muslims. Pope Francis has said that no faith should be ridiculed. There is a difference between freedom of expression and freedom to offend. One must recognise, nevertheless, that the lines are blurred as I may find it offensive what you tell me while you think you are at liberty to say what you feel.
Let us see though if it is really just about freedom of expression being protected by the western governments and liberal intelligentsia across the world. Shall we see it as the evolution that human societies go through in terms of accepting what is challenging, nonconforming and different from accepted norms, e.g. Monty Python’s film ‘Life of Brian’ was banned in the US but now far more irreverent films can be widely shown? Or is it something else which is to do with power and dominance – not just over economic resources but also cultural values? Even if there is a desire in the hearts and minds of the civilised European nations to culturally and socially reform the Asiatic hordes, I think it needs to be understood, reiterated and belaboured that the conflict between Muslims, particularly Arabs, and the west is not essentially a cultural conflict. It is about economy and political dominance, markets and resources.
No one should be killed for expressing or believing, mocking or challenging anything that the person wants to express, believe, mock or challenge. But no innocent citizen of the world should be killed in brutal acts of violence perpetrated by states and armies across the world, many of whose leaders were leading the march for Charlie Hebdo in Paris. It is time that we also ask as citizens of the world for the realisation of our right to hear the truth from our governments and powers that be as much as we ask for our right to freedom of expression. Even a pin was not found in Iraq – leave alone the weapons of mass destruction when Bush and Blair continue to promote global peace rather than being tried by the international justice system.
Hell has broken loose on people in Libya after the war waged by western powers in the name of humanity. The so-called expeditious efforts of the Americans in trying to remove the Syrian president by force leaves us with Islamic State run by Daish that challenges everyone else and wants to take the Muslim world back into the paleolithic age. But the likes of Saddam and Gaddafi in the Arab world or Pinochet, Suharto, Ayub and Zia in other third-world countries were nurtured either by the western powers or were a product of the Cold War. In Afghanistan, first the Mujahedin and then the Taliban were essentially American products. So was Osama Bin Laden. One would never absolve Pakistan for its role and Soviet Union for the invasion, but the mess we see today has been largely created by the west.
We cannot ever support Muslim militias or individual terrorists for killing the innocent citizens of the world and suppressing women and minorities, incomparably more in their own countries than in the western countries. It is not simple anymore to say that if Americans and their allies stop invading Muslim countries, the scourge of terrorism in the name of Islam will end. It has now taken a life of its own and will have to be dealt with differently. But the legitimacy it finds for itself among oppressed Muslim societies will definitely end. It is time that global peace movement, workers unions, rights campaigners and enlightened civil society come together more effectively to challenge world powers and terrorist groups alike. For the majority is neither Charlie nor Kouachi.
The writer is a poet and author based in Islamabad.
Email: harris.khalique@gmail.com