What triggered the carnage at the office of Charlie Hebdo? Sentiments—religious sentiments.
A group of men believed their sentiments [for their religion] were above human rights and decided to go on a murder spree. One of the gunmen, Cherif Kouachi, even admitted he was guided by the scriptures of his religion because it convinced him it was better to die as a martyr. And still it has people echoing “it has nothing to do with Islam”. When will these people believe it has everything to do with Islam? Are they really so eager to endorse the Sharia law [which is exactly what’s being demanded every time Muslim extremists shriek out about being offended at free speech]?
“Free to express but not free to offend!” Really? In which universe does that demented slogan make an inkling of sense? By this very logic—non-worshippers, LGBTQ, women and girls have every right to help abolish religion because religion literally does discriminate against them [ergo, they can shriek about being offended too!] and try to enforce law that will punish people for practicing their vile religion. Coexistence is so unfair to religionists though!
Charlie Hebdo had published cartoons that may have been questionable or obscene and people are entitled to their opinion. But no person is entitled to kill people for feeling offended. Choosing to be offended over humdrum matters is a satire all on its own and it would be hilarious if people weren’t losing their lives over it on a daily basis [right across the globe]. These are the days of our lives…
It didn’t stop the far left liberals from flooding the cyber world with their condescending sincerity for the victims of Islamist violence. They started with “my condolences” and then ended it with “Islamophobia”, “Israel”, “drones”, “foreign policy”, etc. They did not present even a shred of human decency [for which they claim to be indignant about everywhere else] towards the victims who died for merely practicing their freedom to express themselves.
“They were asking for it.”—women have heard that line many times before. The liberal hypocrisy is indeed overwhelming. While they claim conservatives promote rape culture [which is true]—the same liberals promote an Islamist culture that pretty much reinforces rape culture [among other bigotry] and yet they believe they have moral superiority in comparison.
Want to blame Israel and the U.S.? Sure, let’s roll that dice too. Liberals despise both countries because of their imperialism, colonialism and interventionism committed for the sake of nationalism and resources and yet they have no problem promoting the slaughter of innocents because fanatics were “offended”? How much more bigoted can pseudo liberalism get? It’s not a rhetorical question.
Islamophobia is anything but irrational—that is if you are willing to actually consider “Islamophobia” as a valid term. If colonialism is [admittedly] so horrible—why are people ready to let Islamism [religious colonialism] spread into secular nations? This level of hypocrisy is literally killing people and encouraging more fanatics to “act out” because they are being told it is they who are victimized by the freedom of speech. This level of idiocy deserves to be mocked and laughed at as much as religion.
It’s cool to worship flying horses, a virgin birth, slavery, rape and beating of wives—but it is “offensive” to satirize that vulgar nonsense through illustrations.
In the West, you can’t even express the root causes of violence without being accused of racism and oppression against our brethren in the east, especially where religion is concerned. So both conservative and liberal nut jobs want to silence you—a strange and repressive paradox.
Islamist violence in the west receiving apologia from western liberals is also legalized violence in countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan which are condemned by the same group of liberals. This madness is double jeopardy for liberals of Islamic nations—just ask Raif Badawi who will receive 50 lashes for 20 weeks [if he survives the second flogging] while facing 10 years in a Saudi prison for daring to promote free speech.
The men who stormed Charlie Hebdo and murdered 12 people are no different from the religious authorities of Saudi Arabia who have sentenced Raif Badawi by taking a decade of life away from him [and his family] while opening his spine on a weekly basis. Both of their common denominator is religious fanaticism. Free speech is the new sacrificial offering to religious bigotry—isn’t the 21st century dandy?
Conveniently, people forget that Badawi’s torture has nothing to do with “western foreign policy”—lucky for them; their amnesia terrorizes only the people of Islamic nations. But it’s totally acceptable for them to be gross and racist by labeling the torture of people in Muslim-majority nations as “culture”. Maybe Christians in the west can now be empowered to bring back their “culture” of flogging too? Dude—that’s so radical!
We have tolerated tyranny for so long that we see a frightened society that becomes easily offended at talks of peace, unity and freedom. We should not let tyrants conform our morals to their own convenience. It’s as if we are swimming beneath the bloodbath just waiting to be fished out and killed and this is the reality being promoted every time we succumb to the threat of Islamists.
When it comes to religion, Islam can be the “religion of peace” if and when it is reformed. With a Muslim population of over 1.5 billion, there are many reformers and they need your support not scrutiny for daring to change the scriptures that constantly influence the minds of worshippers to commit abhorrent acts of violence.
The world will never forget that the twelve who were slaughtered by the Muslim extremists in Paris were not killed because of drones and foreign policy; they were killed for a national policy [belonging to a western nation] that enforces freedom of speech. Let that sink in. Until then, I’ll draw with Charlie Hebdo.
Aki Muthali is a freelance writer, who's a feminist. Born and raised in Sri Lanka, she currently lives in Canada. She’s also an illustrator and a painter. Follow her on Twitter
