My FB feed has been lately filled with many opinions on the tragedy of Charlie Hebdo and Paris Kosher market terror attacks. People have searched their souls for the reasons and motives for the attacks, and how to proceed. Many things have been brought up: the integration of immigrants and their children (as the terrorists were all French nationals), the foreign policy of Western countries, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, history of colonialism, the support of despotic Middle-Eastern regimes by US, the competition of Jihadist groups for attention and recruits (both ISIS and AQ have been linked to the attacks), the rise of Wahhabism and Salafism, the decline of the secular Middle-Eastern liberation movements and many others. Without a doubt the reality is that the motives and reasons a combination of all of these, with many other factors added for a good measure. Simplistic explanations do not work in a complex world. Many of these larger issues will bedevil the world until they are resolved. But now that some time has passed, I have seen more and more persistent calls to not to spread the cartoons, or to denounce them for racism and attacking minorities, “punching down” on the weak and vulnerable. While few calls for all-out censorship are made, the trend I am seeing is calling for self-censorship by the creative class. I find this problematic even if though I fully defend the right of anyone to criticize the cartoons. In the age of internet, avoiding offense is almost impossible. We now live in a global world where a book or a cartoon is not just published locally. Even Satanic Verses incurred the infamous death fatwa by Ayatollah Khomenei in Iran though the book itself was published in the UK. To use another cultural icon in its global context, the utterly brilliant Mistero Buffo by the Nobel Laurate Dario Fo is highly offensive to Christians, but it is also one of the most splendid pieces of satirical theatre ever created. In our shrinking planet, such a piece is highly offensive to many minorities such as Coptic Christians who are a brutally oppressed in Egypt. Should the play be banned, as without a doubt it can cause hurt and offense around the world? It is worth remembering that despite all the media attention on it in the West, Satanic Verses was not banned in virtually any of the majority Muslim countries –not even Iran of all places where it was reviewed widely. So my answer is no: if Iran can handle Satanic Verses, we can handle Charlie Hebdo. In similar vein, I find that the belief that the decision on how the Islamic world will act from now on is made in the West quite condescending. Salman Rushdie accurately described that in many ways us in the West are only spectators in the tremendous struggle between Iranian and Saudi hardliners for the mantle of the leader of fundamentalist Islam. The same goes for the larger context: the end result of the struggle between Middle-Eastern modernists and the fundamentalists will be won and lost in Cairo, Baghdad and Rojava, not in Paris or Washington. Ever the optimist, I hope that in places like Rojava cantons will ultimately prove victorious. I find that the line between satire and malignant hate is wafer-thin, and often subjective. In many ways it is more of a question of the intent of the person publishing their work than the work itself. Out-and-out racist and hateful work should be strongly condemned and financially boycotted, but I would not to censor them, as it is a slippery slope. I rather attack them publicly (with the pen, not the sword) than give them the mantle of martyrdom censorship grants them. It is also important to see that out-and-out calls for violence and incitement of racial hatred are not satire, but vile propaganda, and should be called such. So my own view is: that there can be no censorship in a free country (yes, I realize that even Finland still has a blasphemy law in the books that should be repealed, so I question our freedom too), and everything can be a target of satire, including all religions. But using the memory of victims of Charlie Hebdo and Kosher supermarket attacks for extremist political capital to incite more violence is repugnant to me. Yes, the extremist cells (and only the cells) responsible have to be brought to swift justice. The operating word is justice.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 11:08:04 +0000
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