Tuesday, 8 November 2011 http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.

cfm/blog_id/38896

Auto da fe in Paris: its no joke

The brand newand deliberately unmarked-- offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in the 20th arrondissement of Paris were destroyed by arson hours before a special issue, renamed Charia Hebdo, hit the newsstands on November 2nd. All 75,000 copies were sold out by noon (a rerun went on sale two days later, bringing total sales to 200,000). One or more firebombs aimed precisely at the IT department wiped out the satirical magazines nerve center. Charlie Hebdos Facebook page had been bombarded with threats, insults, and koranic verses since it pre-released the front page with a caricature of guest editor Mohamed promising 100 lashes to anyone who doesnt die laughing. As the offices went up in flames, the hacked website was plastered with a photo of Mecca packed with pilgrims, and the declaration, in English, No god but Allah / Mohamed is the Messenger of Allah. This shocking attack on press freedom inspired a rush of near-unanimous solidarity in French society. Unambiguously labeling the act an attentat, meaning terrorist attack, Interior Minister Claude Guant promised to find and severely punish the perpetrator(s). Various Muslim authorities condemned all violence, reiterated their disapproval of caricatures of Mohamed and other insults to Islam, and vowed to defend their religion as law-abiding citizens, in the courts. Editorial director Charb posed meekly in front of the smoking ruins of his offices, displaying the front page that provoked those devouring flames. Interviewed by Rue89 he said that real Muslims dont burn newspapers. Elsewhere his colleague, Pelloux, opined: As far as I know, there is no koranic law against laughter. Charlie Hebdo collaborators cannot declare often enough that they have nothing against Islam. In fact, Charia Hebdo was inspired by solidarity with kindred souls, the FacebookTwitter generation whose Arab Springtime struggle for democracy is now jeopardized by Islamists determined to replace the dictatorship of strongmen with the tyranny of sharia law. Forty percent of newly liberated Tunisiansincluding expatriates who voted in France-- chose Nhada! The Hebdo staffs dismay at the torching of their offices suggests they may have underestimated the dangers of sentencing sharia to a thousand satirical lashes. Hassen Chalgoumi--the Franco-Tunisian imam mercilessly targeted by the extreme-extremistIslamist Sheikh Yassin Brigade--warns Europe against the dangers of political Islam. Why do the Americans rejoice in the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, why did France play into the hands of al-Qaeda in Libya? French participation in the NATO operation in Libya was, surprisingly enough, approved by a broad bipartisan majority in France. The peace marches of 2003 are long forgotten. No voices were raised to deplore the use of force and insist on a political solution. Guttural

cries of allahu akhbar (Allah is the greatest), summary executions, the destruction of Sirte, and the savage murder of Mouamar Gaddafi did not visibly disturb the peace of French society. The term Islamist was coined to distinguish radicals from a harmless mainstream Islam that has every right to prosper in the bosom of our democratic societies. Then the aggregate term moderate Islamists was crafted to deny that Turkey is on a slippery backward slope. Quickly resigned to the inevitable domination of the Nhada party in Tunisia, commentators served up another dose of moderate Islamists. Now we have extremist Islamists throwing firebombs at a French weekly. And moderate Muslims promising to plead their anti-blasphemy case in court. We saw the same configuration in 2006 when Charlie Hebdo reproduced the Mohamed cartoons published by Denmarks Jyllands Posten that provoked mayhem and murder worldwide. The weekly was acquitted in a case brought against it by the Grande Mosque de Paris and the UOIF (French branch of the Muslim Brotherhood) but the judgment specified that the right to publish the admittedly offensive turban bomb image in the context of a worldwide controversy should not be construed as license to disregard religious sensitivies. This time around, French media, including the newspaper of record, le Monde, have amply reproduced and displayed material from Charia Hebdo. Not so the BBCs Paris correspondent Charles Chazan, who explicitly rolled up the front page to show the banner while hiding the offensive image. A half dozen publications offered refuge to the homeless editorial staff. They chose the left wing daily Libration where they were welcomed with juvenile excitement and given free reign to do the front page and a double spread in the next days paper. This weeks issue of Charlie Hebdo, we are promised, will appear on schedule and, we expect, will respond forcefully to those who think they can silence the free press in France. Last spring, anti-shari'a authors extensively cited in the Manifesto posted by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik were accused in some quarters of inspiring his hateful crime. Today, in virtue of solidarity with the endangered freedom-loving democrats of the Arab Spring countries, it is permissible to expose the dangers of sharia without being labeled Islamophobe. And, says Charlie Hebdo, we can make fun of sharia with all the vulgarity we exercise on any subject that tickles our minds. Perhaps. But it would be wise to go to those anti-sharia authors and find out whether there is, in fact, a koranic law against laughter. Because the day might come when newspaper offices in France will have to be protected by the police like Jewish day schools community centers, and synagogues.