Je Suis Charlie – Comment

A short response to the events of 07/01/2015.

Over a week has passed since the shocking events that saw 12 people killed in the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, but the social and political ramifications are still unclear for the most part.

As a journo student the murders were especially jarring, (I generally cover the relatively safe subjects of sports and TV) as journalists, workers and policeman ended up paying the ultimate price for an offensive cartoon that depicted the prophet Muhammad.

I was on the Underground in London during the 7/7 attacks so I have some prior knowledge of ‘domestic terrorism’, but for the most part it was hardly at the forefront of my mind during the start of 2015.

The Lee Rigby murder in 2013 served as a reminder of the perils of rampant extremism, (and the UK also raised the terrorism threat level to ‘severe’ last year) but they could be seen as isolated incidents, from an unperceivable bogeyman that might not even exist.

The stark reality of that line of thinking was exposed just over a week ago.

Of course, it’s wrong to blame Muslims as a group for the attack, in the same way Christians aren’t responsible for the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church or Anders Breivik. Nonetheless, it should serve as a warning for those brave enough to criticise Islam – there’s a chance it could cost you your life.

Pope Francis (of all people) soon waded in to the debate, saying:

“One cannot provoke, one cannot insult other people’s faith, one cannot make fun of faith.”

But the thing is, one can.

As an individual, I have the right to make up my own mind as to whether or not there’s an all-powerful deity overseeing the minutiae of my life, and I have the right to critically question any belief system. I firmly believe that everyone is entitled to their own belief system, but a line has to be drawn when it comes to the personal safety of others.

But what can we (as a society) actually do to prevent incidents like this occurring in the future? In short, probably nothing.

We can’t expect to curtail individual acts of extremism, yet we shouldn’t allow these incidents to effect freedom of speech and theological discussion. Nonetheless, the images were crass and offensive, but so was the killing spree that followed, which was simply unjustifiable – no matter the offence caused.

I have none of the answers - I just want to pay my respects to those that lost their lives.