Joan Smith: Charlie, the fire-bombers, and a case of moral idiocy

Joan Smith

Saturday 05 November 2011 21:00 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

In Tunisia a couple of months ago, I heard an academic speculate anxiously about the possibility that his country's elections would bring an Islamist party to power. Like many Arab intellectuals, he was making tentative plans to move to France if Tunisia's secular state appeared to be in danger of being dismantled. In the event, the largest party after October's elections was an Islamist organisation, Ennahda, although its leader has so far been careful to sound moderate.

In Libya, meanwhile, the lynching of Colonel Gaddafi was followed by an announcement that sharia would in future be the basis of all legislation. The leader of the National Transitional Council Mustafa Abdul Jalil declared that a secular law banning polygamy was to be repealed, horrifying Arab women who had supported the revolutions.

It was in response to these developments that the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo decided to rename itself Charia Hebdo – charia is French for sharia – for a week, and announced the Prophet Mohamed as guest editor. A cartoon of Mohamed appeared on the cover, accompanied by a speech bubble in which he threatened "100 lashes if you don't die laughing". In no time at all, the magazine's offices in Paris had been destroyed by a fire bomb. Its website was attacked by angry Muslims, who took down the content and replaced it with the chilling phrase "No God but Allah".

No one was hurt, but the clear intention was to intimidate journalists. In any other week, the attack would have been a major news story – or that's what I'd like to think. It was a relief to see politicians from France's main parties uniting to condemn an act of terrorism. But it didn't take long for a predictable chorus of "Islamophobia" to start up, directed against the magazine. An assistant producer at France 24, Romina Ruiz-Goiriena, accused Charlie Hebdo of contributing to "burgeoning anti-Muslim sentiment" apparently failing to consider that hurling a petrol bomb is a guaranteed way of achieving exactly that.

But the prize for moral idiocy has to go to Time magazine's Paris correspondent, Bruce Crumley, who found it "hard to have much sympathy for the French satirical newspaper firebombed ... after it published another stupid and totally unnecessary issue mocking Islam". Crumley admitted there was "no excuse" for the attack, but made a feeble joke at the magazine's expense, wishing it "good luck with those charcoal drawings your pages will now be featuring".

Last autumn, I marched through London to protest against the Pope's visit, walking alongside placards with slogans just as mordant as the cartoons in Charlie Hebdo. There's a crucial difference between attacking ideas and putting lives at risk; last week's arson attack in Paris isn't the first time Islamists have wildly over-reacted to "offensive" images in publications no one is obliged to buy, as though faith removes the basic obligation to exercise self-control and refrain from violence.

But there is a larger point here: if it isn't possible to unequivocally condemn fire-bombing in the capital city of a secular European nation, what message does it send in countries where there is no separation between religion and state? Many Arabs are secular and they – not the Islamists who respond to satire with incoherent rage – are the people who need our solidarity and support.

www.politicalblonde.com; twitter.com/@polblonde

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in