Charlie Hebdo: Recalling Obama’s Cairo’s speech

Charlie Hebdo is an irreverent weekly magazine in France that features cartoons, polemics and jokes. Charlie Hebdo first appeared in 1970 as a successor to the Hara Kiri magazine, which was banned for ‘mocking’ the death of former French President Charles de Gaulle.  In 1981, publication ceased but the magazine was re-launched in 1992. The […]

Charlie Hebdo is an irreverent weekly magazine in France that features cartoons, polemics and jokes. Charlie Hebdo first appeared in 1970 as a successor to the Hara Kiri magazine, which was banned for ‘mocking’ the death of former French President Charles de Gaulle.  In 1981, publication ceased but the magazine was re-launched in 1992. The magazine has a history of satirizing and ridiculing the character of the most extolled personality in Islam, Prophet Muhammad (SAW). The cover of a 2011 issue re-titled Charie Hebdo (French phrase for ‘Sharia Weekly’) featured a cartoon of the Prophet (SAW).
In 2007, the Grand Mosque of Paris began criminal proceedings against the Chief Editor of Charlie Hebdo, Philipe Val, under France’s hate speech laws for publicly abusing a group on the ground of their religion. The lawsuit was limited to three specific cartoons including one depicting Muhammad (SAW) carrying a bomb in his turban. Val was acquitted in March 2007 on the basis that it was fundamentalists, rather than Muslims, who were being ridiculed in the cartoons. In its February 9 2006 publication, the front page showed a cartoon of a weeping ‘Muhammad’.
In September 2012, Charlie Hebdo published a series of satirical cartoons of Muhammad (SAW) some of which featured nude caricatures of him (Wal iyazu bi-llah-God forbids). This came days after attack on US embassies in the Middle East, purportedly in response to the anti-Islamic film Innocence of the Muslims.
As if the sensibilities of Muslims have never been provoked, the Charlie Hebdo magazine soon after the January 7, 2015 attack on its premises published a special edition on Wednesday January 13, 2015 with a cartoon of the Prophet (SAW) on its cover. This reaction, a repeat of the very action that is thought to have sparked the attack on its office, reveals how unrepentantly the publishing house has refused to appreciate that it has and was yet crossing the borders of freedom. By President Francois Hollande’s definition of free speech, it is a limitless right in French laws to offend others. Like Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, and before him, John Laffin’s Dagger of Islam, Charlie Hebdo has insulted Muslims enough with its several inflammatory cartoons.
Charlie Hebdo is not alone in its blasphemous ‘business’ of mocking Prophet Muhammad (SAW). On September 30 2005, the Jyllands-Posten (a Danish newspaper) published twelve different cartoons of the Prophet (SAW). Although western writers lack respect for the line that separates free speech from lethal talk, Muslims are consistently blackmailed for professing their Islamic faith; and thus labeled as terrorists or fundamentalists. Commenting on the January 7, 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo, Noam Chomsky faults the west; stressing that “Their” crimes are terror attacks while “our” attacks are not crimes but noble defense of the highest values. While “their” in Chomsky’s statement refers to Muslims, his “our” refers to the west.
Against the support of some world leaders for Charlie Hebdo and contrary to the extensive phobia of the west against Islam and Muslims, Pope Francis after the attack on Charlie Hebdo observed that there are limits to freedom of expression especially when it insults or ridicules someone’s faith; stressing that “You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others”.
Pope Francis’ remarks remind me of President Barrack Obama’s Cairo speech which was viewed then by many as a bridge of mutual understanding between America and Muslims on the one hand, and between the west and the Muslim World on the other. In his 5,841 words speech delivered on June 4, 2009 at the Cairo University, President Obama whose discourse touched on various issues including Palestine, nuclear weapons, democracy, women’s rights and religious freedom declared that he was seeking a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based on mutual interest and respect. “And one based”, Obama continued, “upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not to be in competition. Instead, they overlap and share common principles-principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings”.
On religious freedom, Obama said, “It is important for western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit; for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism”. Six years after, we find it difficult to reconcile between this beautiful speech and Obama’s recent State of the Union address delivered on January 20, 2015 (the sixth in the series) in which he condoled with France over the killing of twelve Charlie Hebdo workers but refused to commiserate with Nigeria where over 2,000 people were killed in Baga.
Allah (SWT) forbids Muslims from insulting the faith of others; stating thus in Qur’an 6: 108 “Revile not ye those whom they call upon besides Allah, lest they out of spite revile Allah in their ignorance. Thus have we made alluring to each people its own doings. In the end would they return to their lord, and we shall then tell them the truth of all that they did”.
Allah (SWT) however warns others against insulting Muslims or their religion. He (SWT) states in Qur’an 33:57 “Those who annoy Allah and His messenger, Allah has cursed them in this world and in the Hereafter, and has prepared for them a humiliating punishment; and those who annoy believing men and women undeservedly, bear (on themselves) a calumny and a glaring sin”. May Allah (SWT) guide Islamophobes to understand the limits of freedom, amin.