Posted by:

Charlie Hebdo attack an assault on the human condition

Islam is a superstitious, antiquated belief system, its prophet spoke to imaginary voices in his head and its god is a figment of an ignorant imagination. I might believe this statement to be true, or I might not. Christianity is a superstitious, antiquated belief system, its prophet spoke to imaginary voices in his head and its god is a figment of an ignorant imagination. I might also believe this statement to be true, or I might not. And so on for each religion and, differing only in detail, for any other belief system or ideology.

What is important in these statements is not that I necessarily believe them, that they are objectively true or even that they are rational. What is important about these statements is that I be free to make them.

When three Islamist terrorists murdered 12 people and wounded 11 others at the office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, they were attacking this most fundamental principle of human rights. If all human rights are deemed as equal, as they are usually claimed to be, then freedom of speech is first among those equals.

Speech, or language, as a reflection of our ability to think, is the defining quality of being human. Speech is fundamental to our ability to express desires, fears, needs, concerns and, at the juncture of these qualities, views, values and opinions. That this has become fundamental to liberal democratic society is but a development of its own prior logic; freedom of speech necessarily implies a plural, tolerant political system.

In this, human rights are predicated upon the quality of being human, not being the citizen of a particular country or the adherent, or even respecter, of a particular faith. In this, freedom of speech is especially elevated among human rights in that it is both; it reflects freedom to express oneself on matters of interest or importance, and it reflects freedom from censorship, control and subservience.

Without such freedom of speech, such religions that exist would be allowed only by the arbitrary whim of a particular holder of sufficient power. So too for political views and expressions of culture, as well as more mundane concerns such as taste and preference. Those who try to shut down freedom of expression seek, by their own logic, to shut down even their own conversation.

The magazine Charlie Hebdo had, and will continue to have, its own special place pricking the over-inflated egos, beliefs and opinions of many. It will offend and it will annoy. As well as to entertain, that is its job. Such an exercise is a necessary curative for all the pompousness, self-importance and, often, ridiculousness that characterizes a large part of the world in which we live.

Part of that deflating exercise includes making fun of organized religion, which in turn includes Islam. Indeed, it is the more extreme iterations of Islam, such as that propagated by Salafi jihadists, which is most in need of deflating. That this interpretation of Islam regards violence as legitimate only further highlights the need to satirise it.

The attack on Charlie Hebdo, then, was not, as one of the attackers claimed, ‘avenging the prophet’. It was not even an attack on democracy, as claimed by some political leaders. The attack on Charlie Hebdo was an attack on the very condition of being human.

As for the proposition about belief systems, re-phrasing Voltaire, I may – or may not – believe what I say. But as a human I, and everyone else, have the right to say it. To shy away from that is to let terrorism win.

Leave a Reply