If We Surrender
to Xenophobia, the Terrorists will Win (Sol, Portugal)
"The civic
response to this wave of tensions risks fading under the influence of a terrorism that aims to attack not only the right to
freedom and humor – of which Charlie Hebdo has become a symbol – but the essential values of
tolerance and coexistence between communities. … There is a clear convergence
of interests between fanatical Islamists and xenophobic and extremist European
forces. … Each will tend to radicalize the other in a scenario of 'civil war'
that corresponds with the strategic objectives of this international
intolerance and barbarity."
There is nothing more unbearable to religious fanaticism and
political totalitarianism than humor. The living proof of this, if indeed it
were necessary, was the attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, wherein some of the most
notable French humorists and cartoonists, such as Wolinski,
Charb and Cabu, were
murdered, not to mention the other deaths and serious injuries that occurred
later.
It was not just a heinous crime against freed expression, it
was also conclusive testimony that the right to satire and iconoclast
provocation of totems considered untouchable by the various fundamentalisms (particularly
the most intransigent of all in our era: Islam) represents a crucial boundary
between civilization and barbarity.
The capacity to tolerate humor – even that which is unapologetically
corrosive, offensive, or tacky – distinguishes the cultural patters of a civilization
secure in its heritage from those where caricaturing a religious or political
icon, whether it be Mohammed or any dictator propped up on a majestic pedestal,
constitutes an aggression punishable by death or imprisonment.
Tellingly, Turkish President Erdogan,
trapped in a chronic egocentric obsession, decided to relentlessly pursue
cartoonists who dared to ridicule his authoritarian arrogance and his
pretension of being an enlightened disciple of the Prophet. Despite being a
member of NATO and a candidate for E.U. membership, Turkey has been showing an
accomplice’s ambiguity in its relationship with the Islamic State, which is responsible
for unspeakable atrocities committed in Iraq, Syria and the Kurdish
territories.
Another telling case in the area of freedom of expression,
although not in the area of satire: Algerian journalist and novelist KamelDaoud, author of one of the most amazing novels
of 2014, Meursault, Contre-Enquête[Meursault, Counter Investigation], inspired by Camus’
The Stranger,
has just been threatened with a fatwa (death sentence) ordered by a
fundamentalist religious leader who accuses him of apostasy and heresy. Note
that Daoud is not only avowedly secular and foreign
to Muslim religious precepts, but is also one of the most widely read and
respected critics of the Algerian regime (supposedly also secular). Are we
facing a repeat of the famous fatwa launched by Khomeini against Salman Rushdie over his Satanic Verses? But
while Rushdie benefitted for many years from British police protection, Daoud does not seem to enjoy the same guarantees from
Algerian authorities …
The paranoid (and homicidal) susceptibility of Muslim
fundamentalists to any depiction of Mohammed, particularly in humor, is well known.
After the case of the caricatures in the Danish press, the author's of which were
threatened with death, such daring was resumed precisely by Charlie Hebdo,
already targeted by a 2011 attack that destroyed part of its facilities.
But this precedent didn't intimidate a staff whose editor, Charb, stated that he preferred “to die standing than to live
on my knees.” That is what eventually happened. After an illusory time of calm
and following the inspiration of the Islamic State, the “Allah crazies”
resorted to massacre - the most serious occurrence of this kind in France since
1961 at the time of the now-distant Algerian War …
Yet the historical context has changed. Now the concern is
with French and European capacity to cope with the rising tide of anti-Muslim
xenophobia (associating the majority of Muslims with Islamic fanaticism) which
is growing little by little everywhere, from the Nordic countries to the United
Kingdom and recently, to Germany.
The civic response to this wave of tensions risks fading
under the influence of a terrorism that aims to attack
not only the right to freedom and humor – of which Charlie Hebdo has become a symbol – but
the essential values of tolerance and coexistence between communities that, after
all, define the civilizational heritage of Europe.
There is a clear convergence of interests between fanatical Islamists
and xenophobic and extremist European forces that seek to eliminate this
heritage through a society policed by fear and fueled by a hatred of diversity
- of differentness. Each will tend to radicalize the other in a scenario of “civil
war” that corresponds with the strategic objectives of this international
intolerance and barbarity. This we must energetically oppose. “Je suis Charlie” cannot be simply a
figure of speech.
