#JeSuisCharlie

Je Suis Charlie ("We are Charlie") 
in different languages.

Charlie Hebdo is the the satirical French weekly that motivated Islamic gunmen to kill 12 people, including the magazine's editor, cartoonists, and a police officer. #JeSuisCharlie is the hashtag being used to identify with those killed.

As I write this, journalists, politicians, and culture commentators are debating whether or not blasphemous cartoons should be celebrated while we are at the same time defending them.

The more prominent the personalities, the farther backwards they seem to bend to qualify their support for freedom of expression.

I think I know why, and I don't think it has anything to do with a special attachment to Islam, but rather fear. Unconditional support of Charlie would be misunderstood and invite more violence. The qualifications allow us to take both sides ("I understand your anger, but you must understand how our system works.")

Not convinced?

Andres Serrano's Piss Christ 
 (Wikimedia Commons >)

How much qualification is added to debates over "Book of Mormon" or The Last Temptation of Christ or Piss Christ or Holocaust revisionism?

Because there's no need. The religious West may demonstrate, pontificate, write editorials, or countersue, but then it's over and we move on, maybe hurt, maybe angry and frustrated, but most of the time playing by the rules.

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CNN is posting cartoons responding to the Charlie Hebdo tragedy >

I won't link to the cartoons at the center of the killers' anger, they're easy enough to find if you want. Why won't I link? Because if the roles were reversed, I'd appreciate the same gesture.

FWIW, the offending cartoons aren't especially clever or well-drawn, but that isn't the point. It's about not being bullied into self-censorship, by Kim Jong Un or religious fanatics or anyone else, whom all, despite their differences, are equally mad.

[2015-01-08]

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