Yet, as the staff of Charlie Hebdo was aware, there surely is a difference, in France, between mocking the pope and mocking the Prophet Muhammad. The pope is the representative of the dominant traditional religion of the majority of French citizens. The Prophet Muhammad is the revered figure of an oppressed minority. To mock the pope is to thumb one’s nose at a genuine authority, an authority of the majority. To mock the Prophet Muhammad is to add insult to abuse. The power of the majority in a liberal democracy is not the power of monarchs, to be sure. But it is power nonetheless. In the evening, I went to the Place de la République, where a spontaneous commemoration was taking place. From there, we set off on a march past some of the great structures that result when reason and creativity are given free rein. The march ended in front of Paris’s city hall, where we held aloft pens, the chief tool of reason. Late in the evening, I walked back to my apartment, past a Jewish synagogue. In front of the synagogue was a French police officer. He was carrying the most frightening submachine gun I have ever seen. I have dark hair and dark eyes, and in Europe am often mistaken for being of Arab descent. He looked straight at me, his finger tightening on the trigger. It was the first time I have stood face to face with an evidently tense person in a situation like that. We stood there for a minute staring at each other; me, a New York Jew, and him, a Frenchman whose dark features mirrored mine, intent on protecting with his life my religion’s house of worship.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 17:28:48 +0000
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