Caricaturing Tolerance & Extremism

Charlie Hebdo (Charlie Weekly), a French satirical magazine, joined the ranks of Danish newspaper, Dutch filmmakers, Swedish artist, US Facebook cartoonist, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, by placing the prophet Mohammad on the front cover as a ‘guest editor' of its November 2011 issue with a caption reading ‘100 lashes if you don't die from laughter,' to salute the victory of an Islamist party in Tunisian elections. Earlier that day, the office of the magazine was bombed and its website was also hacked and replaced with an image of the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the words "No God but Allah."

How stupid is the decision made by the magazine of celebrating victory of an Islamist party in such an offensive way? And how idiotic bombing the office sounds? Freedom of speech does indeed grant one a license to mock sentiments of almost everyone in the world but here's where ethics enter the picture. Mocking a religious figure can definitely hurt the hearts of million of its followers which, in my opinion, can be unethical in the sense that the magazine has a huge proportion of Muslim readers. Now, after the eruption of controversy, sentiments of millions of Muslims living all over the world are hurt.

Reuters.com reported that, "The weekly Charlie Hebdo defended ‘the freedom to poke fun' in the four-page supplement, which was wrapped around copies of the left-wing daily Liberation on Thursday, a day after an arson attack gutted Charlie Hebdo's Paris headquarters." So far, nobody has come forward to take responsibility for the attacks made against Charlie Hebdo.  Also, according to the New York Times, the magazine prides itself for its ironic and vulgar material which targets pretty much everybody. They are kind of like the magazine version of South Park.

French authorities condemned the attack as an assault on the freedom of the press. "Freedom of expression is an inalienable right in our democracy and all attacks on the freedom of the press must be condemned with the greatest firmness," Prime Minister François Fillon said in a statement. "No cause can justify such an act of violence." The Associated Press quoted Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, as saying his organization deplores "the very mocking tone of the paper toward Islam and its prophet but reaffirms with force its total opposition to all acts and all forms of violence."

France has been known for creating laws that have been very restrictive for Muslims (whether they meant it or not), because they have required not wearing face coverings, like the burqa, which several Muslim women wear as an outward symbol of their faith.  France is a region where Islamaphobia exists between the Muslim and non-Muslim people due to the attacks in Europe by groups claiming responsibility in the name of Islam.

"In a climate of European religious tension and fear of Islam, to create an amalgamation of all types of caricatures of the Islamic faith is highly regrettable," the Grand Mosque of Paris said in a statement. In 2008, Charlie Hebdo was the center of a controversy after it fired a cartoonist who wrote an allegedly anti-Semitic drawing and article about President Nicolas Sarkozy's son Jean, which the paper published. A court later ordered the paper to pay the cartoonist compensation for unfair dismissal. The cartoonist denied his drawing was anti-Semitic," Wall Street Journal further adds.

BBC News pointed out some interesting facts about Charlie Hebdo, that, "the paper has never sold in enormous numbers - and for 10 years from 1981, it ceased publication for lack of resources, mainly because as a newspaper, Charlie Hebdo suffers from constant comparison with its better-known and more successful rival, Le Canard Enchaine. Both are animated by the same urge to challenge the powers-that-be." The reason is simple, the paper took an easy way out to get famous, enraging extremists and getting worldwide attention. 

Even during the prophet's lifetime, some people were being both verbally and physically abusive to him but, the man of peace, tolerance and love never hit or cursed them back. Instead he prayed for their well-being and begged God for their forgiveness instead.

How then, can his true followers be mean, violent and radical extremists? Everywhere in the Qur'an and throughout the prophet's sayings (Hadiths) there's nothing preached but of peace, love and harmony. The bombing of the magazine's office is an act of extremism and hatred and the bomber can never be Muslim for extremists are NOT, and never can be, Muslim by any means. Extremists don't belong amongst people of faith; in fact they don't belong anywhere. Their sole religion is extremism, not Islam. Let's spread the true message of Islam; the message of peace, tolerance, equality and love.