Charlie Hebdo: What now?

The brutal attack on the French satirical magazine CHARLIE HEBDO by Muslim terrorists has struck me rather hard as it has so many others. As of this writing the suspects are dead.

The first reaction is anger and a call for revenge and I am sure that is what many people were feeling. There have been many anti- Islam protests in countries like Germany, France and even Sweden and I am sure this terrorist attack will only increase those protests. But why this calculated attack on a satirical magazine.

Satire has been a tool by which so called “sacred” topics or people could be criticized and has been in use throughout history. The targets come from all areas of our society including politics and religion. The Charlie magazine was known for very graphic cartoons and some may even be called disgusting and over-the-top. 

My wife asked what the purpose of such disgusting satire is. This magazine did not play favorites but satirized anybody and everybody that they felt was in need of some poking.

Satire is usual a humorous method of shaming individuals and organizations or making fun of them through irony and sarcasm by pointing out what one feels needs to be pointed out as a means of social criticism. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show on the Comedy Channel is a person that is exceptionally good at satirizing people, organizations and events.

As we all know, Muslims do not allow depictions of the prophet Muhammad; it is a sin and a great sign of disrespect towards their religion. Historically, the case is not as clear; the Quran says nothing about images of the prophet and the Shia Muslims do not ban images of Muhammad even if they fear that images may lead to idolatry…that is another topic for another day.

I think the real story here is that most of these depictions / cartoons are negative and highly insulting. But then, so are those of Jesus, Buddha and every other religious leader and symbol; we don’t kill people over them.

We have always said that we may disagree with many people but we will fight to the death to protect their freedom to those ideas we disagree with and this is something that the radical Muslims don’t seem to understand or are not willing to understand. 

If we are not willing to give up our freedom of speech and they are not willing to allow us the freedom of speech, what then?

I think in time, moderate Muslims will prevail because they want the opportunity at the life the West has to offer but they must help control Muslim radicalism and extremism. If they don’t police their own community, people in the West will blame the whole community and take action against the whole community and that will not be a good outcome.