The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo had no qualms about lampooning Islam. Why should it? In a free and liberally-inclined country like France it routinely took the mickey out of politicians and creeds whatever their source. But the editors knew they were running a risk by sending up Islam because militants will simply not accept that their religion be traduced in any way – and are prepared to kill or threaten to make their point.
Salman Rushdie discovered this more than 20 years ago after the publication of Satanic Verses brought a fatwa upon his head from Iran and forced him into hiding for years. Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard found out in 2005 when he was asked by his newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, to draw the prophet Muhammad "as you see him". The resulting cartoon was deemed blasphemous by hard-line Muslims around the world and provoked death threats. Ten Years ago, Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh, who made a controversial film about Islamic culture, was stabbed and shot dead in Amsterdam for insulting the Prophet.
Staff at Charlie Hebdo had already tasted this murderous backlash three years ago when their offices were firebombed when the magazine reprinted the Danish cartoons and named Mohammed editor-in-chief for a week’s edition. It also published a “halal” comic book on the life of the Prophet. To most Western sensibilities all of these publications were the warp and weft of what it means to live in a free country. Even if Christians or Jews object to their religions being satirised, they put up with it. But militant Islamists were not prepared to do so. Two gunmen in Paris have now exacted bloody vengeance in an act of violence that will send shock waves around Europe.
Anti-Islamist attitudes are beginning to move away from the far-Right extreme and more into the mainstream of popular discontent. In Germany since last October weekly marches have been held in a number of towns and cities staged by an organisation called Pegida which campaigns against what it sees as the "Islamisation" of Europe. Nearly 20,000 turned out to one rally in Dresden. The marches have been denounced by political parties and religious leaders across Germany but its supporters do not appear to be drawn from the usual neo-Nazi quarters. » | Philip Johnston | Wednesday, January 07, 2015
