FOCUS

Western  arrogance&  despicable intolerance that followed

Masked gunmen, two of them, heavily armed stormed into the office of ‘CHARLIE HEBDO’, a little heard satirical weekly magazine of cartoons published from Paris, and shot dead 12, reported the media across the world. The dead included ten staff of the magazine and two policemen. There were 10 injured, some critically, informed newspapers. 

As expected there was global outrage at the dastardly killing. Francois Hollande, the French President reacted saying it “An act of exceptional barbarism committed against expression of liberty”. The gunmen, reportedly brothers, Cherif (called Sherif) and Said Kouachi were gunned down by the French Police, after a dramatic manhunt spread over 36 hours. 

Indeed, terrorists of any brand cannot stand against any organized state for far too long. But this is no reason, why there should be any leniency of any terror act. There has to be zero tolerance of terror in all forms. 

Reportedly what precipitated the attack was a revenge for cartoons of Prophet Mohammed and French Police confirmed to the media quoting witness that they heard the attackers shouting “We have avenged the Prophet”.

Those who are in the know of things, will remember, it was the same CHARLIE HEBDO, which reprinted some 12 cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, first published by JYLLANDS –POSTEM, a Danish paper, way back in early 2006. This was the first time the larger world learnt about this weekly. Eight years ago the Danish cartoons had disrupted the Muslim world from Thailand to Turkey. Yes this time round, the cartoon cauldron is back with a vengeance.

Suddenly whole of France was on the edge, at least until the two killers were nabbed, alive or dead. In a show of solidarity against terror, some 40 world leaders marched hand in hand with thousands of Parisians to express shock over the most fanatical Muslim extremist assault in which some 19 perished including the two gunmen.

Now the question is, for drawing, printing and then publishing a few cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, so many - 17 of them – had to die? followed by the killing of the two killers! The entire democratic world was one in condemning the killing. Rightly so! All because, the sacred freedom of expressions was under assault.

But excuse me Sir! Does your freedom of expression gives you unfettered licence to insult someone’s sacred feelings, especially the people with whom you do not equate yourself!? In this case, the cartoons by CHARLIE HEBDO, has, apparently hurt, at least a section of Muslim population. 

Of course, the answer to the provocation is not this extremely diabolic killing. Indeed those who live with guns are destined to perish with guns. But the larger question is why those 17 had to die in the first place? If these cartoons were not made, would those 17, whose life was cut short, would be living! Probably yes. Surely they would not have had this violent end. So, CHARLIE HEBDO, and men behind it were wrong?

As students we were told that right and restraint go hand in hand. You can’t have right without responsibility. But then white-man has his own concept of what is right for him. Accordingly he decides what constitutes his freedom.

It was in March 1906, in Transwal, South Africa, General Smuts’s regime had introduced an amendment to the Asiatic Registration Act, governing immigrant indentured labour from India and other Asiatic countries. Amendment was thru an ordinance. The idea was to restrict Indian labourers, who were getting organized under M.K. Gandhi, the barrister. Under the ordinance General Smut’s regime was introducing ID cards, which all Indians had to carry at all times. The non-possession could land the person in jail. M.K. Gandhi (who became Mahatma after his eventual return to India post 1915) had organized a protest meet where he spoke about the dangers involved in this ID card. Among many restrictions imposed on brown Indians, in the white-man’s concept of freedom only for himself, it was eminently possible, according to M.K. Gandhi, that a policeman could enter private dwellings of Indians, ostensibly to inspect I.D. proofs of women and children at home. This was one aspect which got the entire crowd of Indians, who had assembled to hear MK Gandhi, incenced. What followed is all there to know in the literature available on South Africa’s apartheid regime. But the idea of referring to the episode/issue was to highlight, how the white-man abrogated the freedom to himself.

Western world should realise that, as much as they have the right to caricature the other side, the side that has suffered the humiliation, or perceived humiliation too has a right to protest. Certainly killing the supposed wrong doer is not at all a protest. What happened in Paris is certainly barbaric as termed by French President Francois Hollande. The anger, for its own sake, has to be controlled. But how does one take an intransigent offender who goes to town to repeat the offence, once again in the name of freedom of expression? 

So there is indeed a problem. While the anger of the Muslim world is certainly a matter of grave concern, the arrogance of white man’s insistence on what he has done, to keep doing, cannot be accepted as well, in a civilized arrangement of co-existence. Which truly means, there is scope for improvement on both sides. They both need to walk a few extra miles. While Muslim world need to temper its response to any external stimuli, there is simply no justification what so ever, in being offensive, insulting and inflammatory in the name of freedom of expression.

Fortunately for the wider world, the temporal head of the western faith Pope Francis has gone on record post-Paris attack on CHARLIE HEBDO, expressing similar sentiments. Reportedly, Pope condemned any killings in the name of God, but also insisted that there are limits to freedom of speech and said that people’s religion could not be insulted or mocked.

It’s all very well to assemble and say “WE ARE ALL CHARLIE”. Here it is pertinent to quote what appeared in the print media from Mumbai on 8th Jan., along the news of attack. We quote “Satirical magazine CHARLIE HEBDO loved to offend sensibilities. It frequently took provocative potshots at popes, heads of state and Islam. But in the name of freedom of expression, it often over-reached itself, especially when it came to lampooning Prophet Mohammed, Islam’s holiest figure. Slain chief editor Stephane Charbonnier, who published his works under the pen name ‘Charb’ told a wire agency in 2012. “I live under French Law not under Quran Law”. The magazine once named Prophet Mohammed as its guest editor, published slanderous cartoons and renamed itself ‘Sharia Hebdo’ with the cover slogan ‘100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter’. Another controversy erupted in 2006 when the publication reprinted cartoons of Prophet circulated by a Danish national. The decision to reprint images landed the then editor in court, though he was later acquitted. The tendency to go after Islam boomeranged and the Hebdo offices were gutted in 2011 by arsonists. In 2012, the magazine again printed provocative cartoons of the Prophet. Of course it has also attacked other religions. Past covers offensively portrayed Pope Benedict XVI, former French President Nicholas Sarkozy and others. But the mocking of Islam had somehow become its forte. The small circulation weekly leans towards the left and professes to practice investigative journalism”. Unquote.

But what is disquieting is the relative silence of leaders of the Islamic world which reveals how far the faith has been hijacked by the jehady merchants of death. Free world will somehow find ways to meet the challenges of these maniacs. But surely, ordinary Muslim, who goes about his life unmindful of global theatre of absurd, shall end up paying   a much bigger but undeserved price.

As an exercise in participative debate, we have reproduced some reports and feedback.

Mushtaq Ali, from Chennai wrote in the media. “The incidents in Paris show that increasingly, sections of society are unable to disown the extremist fringe. Peshawar and now Paris reveal a deeply flawed thinking”.

H P Murali from Bangalore writes “It is odd that the publisher of CHARLIE HEBDO were going ahead with an editorial plan despite knowing that it was fraught with danger. It is ironic that the media both print and electronic, often wantonly walk into the danger zone by hurting sentiments of a community either to increase sales or TRP ratings when there are plenty of other subjects to be discussed, why invite trouble?” It’s a good question. 

Samia Al Duaij, a Kuwaiti who had earlier stayed in Denmark for some years but was staying in Belgium during the 2006 Danish cartoon disruption has a meaningful take on the entire issue. “These pictures aren’t blasphemous, they are racist. I am a very liberal Kuwaiti woman who cracks the odd joke about Islam, but I was extremely offended by these cartoons because I know what kind of society produced them. I am well educated with a well paid job in Denmark, but I was subjected to derogatory comments all the time because I look Middle Eastern. So do all second generation Muslim Danes ‘feel unwelcome’. Its like Blacks in the U.S. Its not just funny. I am not even remotely religious.” While this is a very valid argument against the innate nature of superiority among most whites, she has a very valid question to her co-religionists as well. ‘I have one question for the thousands of outraged Muslims. There are hundreds and thousands of Muslims men, women and children being killed all over the place, by organized states, fundamentalist terror groups, and you lose your head over a bunch of cartoons in a second rate paper from a Nordic country? That’s the true outrage’.

"West which valorises freedom of speech in the Hebdo case, went after Snowden tooth and nail. So where is the freedom of speech? Pure hypocrisy!" remarked Dr Ravishankar Rao from Mangala Gangothri, Mangalooru.

Then, there are jokers like Haji Yakub Qureshi a former minister in U.P. government. He is reported to have offered a reward to the CHARLIE HEBDO killers Rs. 51 crores, stating that “Prophet Mohammed had conveyed a message of peace to the entire world and anyone makes cartoon on him will invite death like the cartoonists and journalists in Paris.” It was the same Qureshi who similarly offered at a public rally in Meerut in 2006, a similar amount, to anyone who would kill Danish cartoonist. This is an extremely repugnant and condemnable statement. Reportedly, All India Muslim Personal Law Board has condemned Qureshi dismissing it as “a gimmick and for cheap publicity”, which is a welcome development.

Thus there is huge scope for liberal Muslims to lead the faithfuls on a more accommodative but responsible life in the public space. They perforce have to take the call for a sustainable and less combative co-operative co-existence. Indeed, as a newspaper puts it “Islamic world must act against the forces of inhumanity and barbarism among its own at the pain of isolation in the comity of nations”.

J.SHRIYAN

Drug-addicts:can they represent any faith?

Two of the masked gunmen who stormed the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, are brothers, according to a police source. The two were drug-taking petty criminals before being radicalized and sent to Yemen to train as killers, according to a report by the Daily Mail.

According to the report the siblings Said Kouachi, 34 and Cherif, 32, are orphans. They were brought up in a care home, before turning to a life of crime and then ultimately mass murder. The police source said one of the shooters had been identified by his identity card, which had been left in the gateway car.

The brothers had allegedly frequented a mosque in the Stalingrad district of Paris, where they came under the influence of a radical Imam called Farid Benyettou. He reportedly encouraged them to study Islam at his home and at a Muslim Centre in their neighbourhood, according to a BBC report.

Cherif is allegedly said to be a hashish smoking pizza delivery driver. They were first picked up by terror police in 2005, around the same time Cherif appeared on TV claiming to be a rapper, when they were arrested over links to a group operating in northern Paris. Cherif was arrested again in 2008 after trying to board a plane to Damascus with an AK-47 operating manual. Cherif was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008, according to French media. Both were named on police papers in 2010 over a plot to break a known jihadi out of jail.