If I read the critiques posted in the news or by my friends on facebook it sounds like I have made a mistake. After all Charlie Hebdo has published inflammatory images of Mohammed and of Muslim leaders, which I do no condone. They have also published images of other religions and their leaders which are offensive. They have also published images promoting conservative views on feminism which I don't agree with.
But I stand behind my decision to use the hashtag because the attacks in Paris which reflect other attacks that have happened around the world are not about a cartoon and Michael Deacon of Telegraph agrees: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11332535/We-think-the-Paris-terrorists-were-offended-by-Charlie-Hebdos-satire.-What-if-were-wrong.html.
So what are the attacks about? They are about the need for greater tolerance and peacebuilding between and within societies and fundamental human rights.
When I was a first year human rights student Maher Arar's wife came to speak to our Introduction to Human Rights class and described her anguish at the disappearance of her husband who had been extra-judicially extradited to Syria where he was being tortured and her efforts to help him return home. Following her presentation, despite being warned against such outbursts one of my classmates raised her hand and asked Monia Mazigh how she thought she was making other Canadian women feel by walking around in public with her hijab on. While I had raged against this kind of insensitivity throughout highschool and my first year of university this was the first time I witnessed it head-on in such a public context. Unfortunately it is not the last. In the ten years that followed having worked with immigrant and refugee populations as well as being active in social media circles it is more than apparent that in Western societies Islam is most often generalized as being violent and degrading towards women, rather than as a faith centered around peace the emphasizes the importance of charitable work and respectful living. While these views are most visibly advanced by papers such as Charlie Hebdo they are also quietly advanced within my social circles by my well educated, "classy" friends who laugh whenever the "brown guy" card is played in a game of Cards Against Humanity.
Unfortunately, research on radicalization has shown that the marginalization which results from this kind of attitude and exclusion results in pushing religious men and women further towards the point of extremism and when these attacks do occur we use them to justify our fears.
Yet, as my friend Stéphane aptly pointed out today our own record recently isn't looking so great either. Objectively, as a coalition of western actors we are currently bombing insurgents in Iraq and Syria in the hopes that they'll abandon their convictions and go home and that peace will prevail. We also seem to hope that if we imprison all of the "islamic fundamentalists" that might prove to be a threat to our citizens that the problem is going to go away.
Instead of looking for blame, whether it lies among religious extremists or intolerant conservatives we need to come together to start tackling some of these issues. At the community level this means promoting inter-cultural and inter-faith dialogue to promote better understanding between neighbours. Provincially and nationally we need to continue to enact and enforce laws that protect people's religious freedoms and we need to develop more effective policies to address exclusion and the resulting extremism. Internationally instead of dropping bombs to try to end wars we need to put our boots on the ground and actually work with people to build peace because killing more people will not put an end to the issues that caused the rifts that started the problem in the first place. Indeed one Canadian life is of equal value to that of anyone from another nationality and you should feel just as uncomfortable when you hear about the number of people killed as a result of our lack of concentrated peacebuilding efforts in the Middle East as you would if it was happening in your own neighbourhood.
Here's the catch. We need to continue to allow the freedom of expression which permitted Charlie Hebdo to publish offensive comics in order for the situation to change. Not because if we don't we're letting the "terrorists" win but because it is what will allow us to call on our political, community and religious leaders publicly for change. It is what allows us as human rights defenders or otherwise to freely share our ideas and through conflict develop new and better approaches to the problems that our society faces. Amnesty International was formed to support two Portugese men who were arrested for toasting to freedom. http://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are/history
Alors oui, bien sur, #JeSuisCharlie.
If you want to change your perception of Islam as an element of Canadian society I have one more observation for you. As you already know following the Ottawa shooting my friends and I went to the War Memorial and gave out free hot drinks and coffee to the people visiting the Memorial. While I was there I was approached by a man and his son. He explained that he and his wife were recent immigrants and were Muslims. He went on to share with me about how horrified they were of the attack that occurred and told me that he and his wife had come to visit the War Memorial everyday since the shooting and how they planned to continue to do so in the memory of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo's.
