Madness... Acts of violence were directed at Charlie Hebdo personnel in France. It was thought to have occurred due to satire that was directed at Muhammad.
This expression is necessary for maintaining a free-thinking, informed, intellectually vibrant society. Where people can make a living drawing controversial, but thought-provoking cartoons, it certainly reflects a society that can sustain such endeavors. These would be societies where peoples have enough wealth to afford literally non-life sustaining cartoons. These would be societies who are able to mock leaders, laws, and policies.
Yes. That was the 'crime.'
Situational, embarrassing comic strips of religious figures and others have been the playing field of the Charlie Hebdo Magazine since 1970. It has been mocking, poking fun, editorializing politicians and religionists alike. Despite threats and being firebombed, the cartoons did not stop.
Conversely, imagine a place where its peoples had no coin to afford those trivialities. This speaks of a tattered economy. Imagine a place where its peoples could not openly speak about its government. The people there would be constrained by militant zealotry. Such a place would not produce a wellspring of thinkers, namely engineers, scientists, teachers, poets, philosophers and such.
We would be talking about much of the Middle East, which is ruled by extremism.
The Middle East was once intellectually vibrant. The Library of Alexandria was the epicenter of knowledge development and transfer. Al-Khwarizmi wrote Al-jabr, known as Algebra today. Hypatia, a female teacher, taught future statesmen, astronomers, and scientists. Herophilus and Erasistratus worked on human anatomy. Eratosthenes accurately estimated the circumference of the Earth using geometry.
...until fanaticism dominated the region and stifled it from further growth and thought.
There are imams today who still proselytize the same suffocating edicts that literally sucks the life out of its citizens, effectively robbing them of their true potential. One such person is Radical Islamic Imam Ajhem Choudary.
By Choudary's own statements, he contradicts himself. Even though he claims Sharia law calls for capital punishment for those who insult Muhammad, he claims it must be carried out by the state. Since when are rogue, automatons agents of the Islamic state? Maybe that hypothetical question answers itself.
The event happened in France, where Sharia law does not exist, mainly due to its conflict with Western laws. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume no one is to fear from agents of the state exacting some punishment due to actions which are standard operating procedure -- use of satire -- in free-thinking societies.
It is quite clear that Choudary and twisted imams like him, use skewed logic and it is nothing more than a symptom of an archaic mindset that keeps them and the violent extremists they perpetuate in an assembly line of mass, urgent hysteria. He said:
"In an increasingly unstable and insecure world, the potential consequences of insulting the Messenger Muhammad are known to Muslims and non-Muslims alike."
When a person ties a tourniquet around the neck of reason, such a person is responsible for the inevitable instability that follows. To perpetuate dogmatic homage -- even though Muhammad himself said 'I am only a man' -- robs a region and a generation of its ability to ascend.
With a deeper look at the religion, Islamic scholar Maulana Wahiduddin Khan said:
On several occasions, Muhammad treated people who ridiculed him and his teachings with understanding and kindness. “In Islam,” Khan says, “blasphemy is a subject of intellectual discussion rather than a subject of physical punishment.”
When we decide to listen to Choudary instead of Khan, our actions are nudged toward violence and intolerance. When all there is to hear are Choudarys, the self-fulfilling target of violence is achieved as well as a shambles of a society and lack of opportunities to fuel it.
[In support of Charlie Hebdo, many people are using the phrase 'Je suis Charlie,' which means 'I am Charlie.' In addition, more must be done. Support satire and help the Charlie Hebdo movement by subscribing to the magazine via Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Charlie-Hebdo/dp/B00007LMFU/.]
Resources
Carvajal and Daley (2015) Proud to Offend, Charlie Hebdo Carries Torch of Political Provocation. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/world/europe/charlie-hebdo-broke-taboos-defying-threats-and-violence.html
Charlie Hebdo (2015) Charlie Hebdo Magazine. http://www.charliehebdo.fr/
Gascoigne, B. (2001) “History of Alexandria” HistoryWorld. http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa03
Pavlitch, K. (2015) Radical Islamic Cleric Decries Free Speech, Justifies Charlie Hebdo Slaughter in Column Published at USA Today. Townhall. http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2015/01/08/radical-islamic-cleric-decries-free-speech-in-column-published-at-usa-today-n1940242
Tornoe, R. Untitled Comic. Political Cartoons. http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/615b0e3f-e256-40e7-b735-7af40edf4ea0.html
Varvel, G. (2015) Untitled Comic. Townhall. http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2015/01/09/126662
Zakaria, F. (2015) Blasphemy and the Law of Fanatics, The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fareed-zakaria-blasphemy-and-the-law-of-fanatics/2015/01/08/b0c14e38-9770-11e4-aabd-d0b93ff613d5_story.html
