The murders of 12 people — including four of France’s most famous cartoonists — in Paris Wednesday were not justified or righteous, and the terrorists who committed them while believing otherwise have accomplished little more than to strengthen the resolve of the segments of society that have rejected barbarism in favour of things like a free press, freedom of expression and freedom of religion.
It was a cowardly attack on unarmed human beings who did nothing more than draw and print a few caricatures — regardless of what you thought about the controversial images — which is in and of itself so ridiculous it defies logical explanation. It was an attack on the principles listed above, too. But despite the pseudo-religious undertones, it was an attack on Muslims as well. It was an attack on those who’ve embraced Islam — a faith that underpins some of humanity’s greatest scientific and social advances — as a way to better their lives and the world, because with each absurd crime based on a perversion of that great religion, more people turn a skeptical eye toward even those who practice it peacefully. It’s wrong, it’s unfair and it’ll happen, regardless.
And it won’t go much further than that. Each attack on representations of the principles that we — including many Muslims — hold dear, whether it be a media office in Paris or a war memorial and parliament building here in Ottawa, is a reminder that liberty, once achieved, can withstand a great many strikes. There will be no death by a thousand cuts, which seems to be the only strategy groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS have come up with. Not even death by a hundred thousand cuts, or a million.
The most fearsome thing about Islamist extremists is that they don’t fear death, which should be to their advantage. But the worldwide disgust and condemnation of the latest attack, the alliance between France’s major broadcasters and publishers to keep the Charlie Hebdo publication alive “pour préserver les principes d’indépendance et de liberté de pensée et d’expression, garants de notre démocratie,” the thousands who gathered in France’s streets Wednesday night to protest a gutless act … they all show that there are many more people in this world who would face the threat of death, or even death itself, before submitting to the dystopia championed by a relative handful of murderous ideologues.
As Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnier, one of the editors gunned down in Paris, put it in a widely circulated quote Wednesday: “It perhaps sounds a bit pompous, but I prefer to die standing than living on my knees.”
Courage, France.
