Je Suis Charlie. “We are all Charlie.”
Would that we all were.
But, mercifully, most of us are. And it’s worth remembering that the good guys–across this world’s religious/cultural spectrum–are the majority.
It’s just that the minority are far from fringe elements without recourse–militarily, technologically and psychologically.
And as long as there are societal inequities, mutating zealotries, obscenely boundless rationalizations, craven evil and geopolitical subplots, this insidious condition will be with us. As long as the human condition has a dark side and there are holy books ripe for cherry-picking justifications for anything, this reality will linger.
It’s an existential threat that can only be countered by a coordinated effort that moves on three overlapping fronts.
It’s about mutual, inter-and-intra societal respect and integration. It’s about proudly and defiantly standing up for the principles of democracy and its inherent freedoms. And, most importantly, it’s about a unilateral and universal Muslim leadership role that unequivocally condemns abominations in the perverted name of religion.
But the devil, as it were, is in the details.
Respect and integration, for example. It must go both ways.
Pick up a copy of “While Europe Slept,” Bruce Bawer’s stark warning back in 2006 about what Europe was seemingly allowing in the name of liberal immigration and cultural diversity. Would “live and let live” prevail? Would Islam be Europeanized? Was it so much “Eurabia” alarmism?
Try asking around Paris these days, where innocents were slaughtered in the name of the Prophet Muhammad, who unlike, say, Jesus, can never be depicted, let alone satirized. When journalists, a police officer and Kosher shoppers are gunned down because of Charlie Hebdo cartoons, retail terrorism is the new normal.
The biggest French march since V-E just took place. It was an incredible show of solidarity–including dozens of world leaders–that underscored unity against terrorism. It symbolized the sort of coordinated, unintimidated, forceful response that is nothing less than mandatory. Nobody walked in fear.
And, yes, the U.S. should have been represented by someone more prestigious than Jane Hartley, the U.S. ambassador to France. French President Francois Hollande was linked–literally–with German Chancellor Angela Merkle and Mali President Boubacar Keita. Other notable, front-row marchers included Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abas, who disagree on most things.
Yet the country that continues to lead the allied effort to halt ISIS atrocities and al-Qaeda plots–and has 9/11 forever seared in its collective consciousness–couldn’t turn out anyone above the rank of ambassador? Boubacar Keita was there–but no Barack Obama, Joe Biden or John Kerry, who even speaks fluent French? Poor form. Mixed message.
Sacre bleu.
But ultimately no response matters more than that of those who represent more than a billion Muslims who want peace–not anti-Western jihad. Whether presidents, ayatollahs, high-profile imams, community leaders or key media influentials, Muslims across the globe need to proactively step up and publicly make the case that the unconscionable–from Boko Haram horrors and ISIS beheadings to inexplicable journalistic vengeance–is always condemnable.
Tampa-based Hassan Shibly, executive director of the Florida Council on American Islamic Relations, affirmed no less the other day. “I think no one mocks Islam more than those criminals who commit the most disgusting acts while hijacking the name of our faith,” said Shibly. “Those criminals that commit those terrible acts have ridiculed Islam much more than that newspaper did.”
We’ll give the last word, for now, to Charlie Hebdo. There will be a 3-million-issue press run of its next issue. In 16 languages. In 25 countries. With a Muhammad image on the cover.
Bon chance.