Since last Wednesday, thousands of people have taken to the streets of Paris in response to the terrorist attack at the French satirist magazine Charlie Hebdo, and many more have paid homage on social media to the ten journalists and two policemen who were gunned down. The hashtag #JeSuisCharlie went viral as people were making grand statements of solidarity, claiming that “we are all Charlie”.
In fact, we are not. Ceci n’est pas Charlie. Just as populism feeds on events such as this deplorable act of terrorism to reiterate their xenophobic and racist politics of exclusion, so does the concomitant media circus seem to overshadow the barriers to freedom of speech deeply embedded in our society.
Charlie Hebdo spared no religion or creed in its satirical criticisms. Advocating that “we are all Charlie” is in fact a cynical and disingenuous statement which turns a blind eye on the fact that many political parties and religious groups (which allegedly form part of the “we” sphere) have heavily criticized the magazine and attempted to silence Charlie in the past for its biting satire.
However comforting it might be to believe that Charlie Hebdo represents “us” and that the extremist attackers (and populists will unduly claim Muslims in general) are “they” who cannot cope with “our” levels of freedom, this is a rather misleading picture: nowadays in our society, whilst criticizing Muslims is accepted in the public realm, this is not true of all minority groups. Indeed, it would be frowned upon if not even illegal in some cases to criticise Jews, black or even gay people. Freedom of speech must apply equally to all groups and members of our society. One size should fit all, rather than “our” size fitting all.
May Charlie Hebdo teach us the lesson on freedom of speech. “Extremism thrives on other people’s extremism, and is inexorably defeated by tolerance”. Multiculturalism did not cause this attack. Quite the opposite.
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