Charlie Hebdou Massacre and the Dalhousie Debacle

The murder of 12 people, 10 journalists, and 2 policemen, my islamic fundamentalist radicals is unforgivable but it is a bit rich to see it as an assault on freedom of the press.

This satirical magazine found new life by inflaming islamophobia by printing and reprinting cartoons insulting the muslim prophet Mohammed. The magazine, according to Slate magazine, “depicts the prophet naked and in pornographic poses” (I have only seen some of them, most media refuses to re-publish them).  Such things can be published in Europe with the tacit or overt support of many people with anti-islamic leanings, especially the far-right. Similar cartoons cannot be imagined in the context of Christianity with, for example, the Pope giving oral sex, or a naked Mary giving birth to Jesus out of her ass. Even if the cartoons hadn't been so vile, muslim culture requires that no image of the prophet be shown, which is very different from christian culture where depictions of Jesus, Mary and other religious figures are very important, and found on the walls of most churches.

Not all of the Hebdou cartoons were so obnoxious. One cartoon of the prophet Mohammed with his head in his hands bemoaning the terrorists who are operating in his name, is quite powerful, although still disrespectful of the muslim prohibition on images of the prophet.

The magazine was criticized in 2012 by the French government when it announced plans to publish this new series of cartoons, “In the current climate, the prime minister wishes to stress his disapproval of all excess and calls on everyone to behave responsibly”.

So what does this have to do with the dental students in Halifax, Canada? If we get past the mass murder, the West is also calling it an attack on freedom of the press, rather than just the mass murder that it surely is (if it had been 12 pornographers, or 12 beggars, or 12 prostitutes, or 12 soldiers or 12 nuns, it would have still been mass murder, and unforgivable). What Charlie Hebdou did with their cartoons was, in words, to sexually assault an entire religion, and what they were portraying was far more malicious than the boys in Halifax who were obviously amateurs at sexualized insults.

Yet, the West is apparently now all in favor of the freedom of the press no matter how vile the publication is, yet is interested in crucifying 13 young men for a private conversation at a lower level of maliciousness. If the young men had published a magazine with similar cartoons using women in their class as models would that have been okay?

Imagine another thing. A satirical magazine in, say, Iran publishes a series of cartoons mocking western religions or political figures by showing them naked and in sexual poses. Would that be defended as freedom of the press?

The worst thing is that the three terrorists have accomplished the exact opposite of what they presumably wanted. They, who worship violence, might have thought that the West might now respect islam more, but actually, the horror from their actions will almost certainly inflame anti-islamic sentiment, making life difficult for the millions of muslims who just  came to Europe to find a better life, and just want to quietly get on with earning an income and raising a family. And it will provide further justification for the West's war on Islam which probably kills more than a dozen civilians every day.