Art Is A Religion No One Kills For - Je Suis Charlie

By: Rashee Anand.

The world had yet to recover from the gruesome Peshawar attack, when the attacks in Paris happened. Two gunmen, identified as Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, entered the Charlie Hebdo Office Building on 7th January. They opened fire on writers and escaped in a getaway car soon after. Before they sped away, they made their intent clear by screaming “Allahu Akhbar! We have avenged the Prophet”. Twelve people were killed in the attack, including the magazine's editor Stèphane Charbonnier aka Charb, and other cartoonists who went by the names of Cabu, Tignous and Wolinski.

In an attack on the Charlie Hebdo building, terrorists killed twelve cartoonists and screamed Allahu Akhbar! We have avenged the Prophet” -Image by CNN Money.

Another attack followed on the 9th of January. Amedy Coulibaly, in his own words, 'synchronized' his attack with the Kouachis. He held hostages at the Hyper Cacher Supermarket in a Jewish-Muslim neighbourhood of Paris and killed four.


It is not difficult to connect the two events. There were evidences of Coulibaly and the Kouachis talking on the phone more than 500 times. Moreover, all of them had confessed that they belonged to the Yemen branch of Al Qaeda. They were out to avenge the Prophet Muhammad and wanted to 'die as martyrs'.

Amedy Coulibaly held hostages at the Hyper Cacher Supermarket in a Jewish-Muslim neighbourhood of Paris and killed four. Image- NY Daily News

Al Qaeda representatives issued a statement to The Associated Press saying that 'the leadership of Al Qaeda directed the operations and they have chosen their targets carefully'. The statement came much after the 9th January police sieges in which the Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly were killed.
The Kouachi brothers had been holed up in a warehouse building near Dammartin en Goele and were killed in an encounter. Coulibaly was killed while the police was rescuing hostages from the Supermarket.

These attacks were the first successful attacks by Al Qaeda's Yemen branch. An Al Qaeda member reportedly said that 'the attacks were in line with warnings from Osama Bin Laden to the West about the consequences of the persistence in the blasphemy against Muslim sanctities'.

Were the attacks really meant to express outrage against Charlie Hebdo's satirical cartoons? Or did they stem from a deep-rooted psychology and desire for revenge? We may never really know. The fact of the matter remains that it was an attack against 'free speech' and 'liberal expression'.
Religion and free speech have never really got along well. Both are out to shame the other. However, disagreement and condemnation are two different things. We may never see eye to eye, but that does not give you a right to murder me.

Religion and Freedom of Speech have always been two conflicting notions.

Charlie Hebdo has been inspiring the ire of Islamic extremists since quite some time now. Their office was firebombed in 2011 after they ran a spoof issue 'guest edited' by the Prophet Muhammad honouring an Islamist Party's victory in Tunisian elections. The controversial cover had depicted the Prophet along with a line '100 lashes if you do not die of laughter'.
Undeterred, less than a week later, Charlie Hebdo managed to publish their weekly issue. The front page read 'La Amour plus fort que la haine' (Love is stronger than hate) and showed a male Charlie Hebdo cartoonist and a bearded Muslim man kissing, the still-burning Charlie Hebdo office in the background.

Charlie Hebdo has always spoken out unperturbed on religious, political and social issues.

Will killing twelve of their employees really stop them?

They will mourn for the dead. They will offer condolences to the deceased’s' families. Yet they will bounce back harder with crisper satires and ridicules.
They have had a history of controversies and attacks, and they are not going to stop. Charlie Hebdo's previous editor in chief Girard Biard had said, “We're a newspaper that respects French Law. Now, if there is a law that is different in Kabul or Riyadh, we are not going to bother ourselves with respecting it.”

The attack on Charlie Hebdo building will only be faced by the cartoonists with crisper satire. - Zuma Press

France has always been a country of 'liberty' and 'free expression' and these assaults have attacked the very ideals that she stands for. Religion or atheism, disagreement or discontentment does not make up excuses for violence and terrorism.

Free speech and expression has always been up for debate.

Free Speech and expression has always been up for debate.

Take an example: So many books and movies have been banned. They sparked outrage and stirred up wraths, so they were confined to such a fate. However, does that mean that we will kill or torture the authors and directors? Ideally: No, Murder is wrong. Realistically: still no, Killing one author is not going to stop other authors. Or, for that matter, killing people is not going to change ideologies. It is only going to change populations.

Beauty of art lies in the fact that it is free. If you do not like it, ignore it. If you like it, appreciate it. Burning it down will leave your hands black too. Art will never defend itself. It does not need too. Art will not, and should not, give justifications.

Murder is endless. It will only breed revenge and hatred. None of us will come out any better. We preach our convictions and beliefs about our religions. We are ready to kill and slaughter for our firm ideals. How can mere pictures and words shake up our beliefs? Are we that weak? Is our god so helpless?
Your conviction is strong enough for you to get down to terrorism, but it is not strong enough to remain unaffected by a satirical cartoon?

How strong are our religious convictions and how strong is our god?

If free speech were a person, he will be ‘The Most Controversial Celebrity of the Year’. Nevertheless, were these attacks really against freedom of expression? There is an underlying current of violence, greed and terrorism.

Jihadism is anti-democratic and focuses on wealth and power. In addition to that, it is not confined only to Arabic countries. France counts at least 1200 people in the war zone in Syria- some dead, some returned and yes, some headed there. The ISIS and Al Qaeda have repeatedly threatened France, it being the home to Europe's largest Muslim population.

Leaving aside the common link of religion, France and the Middle East have secured a relationship through trillions of dollars travelling back and forth. It is a simple equation. Oil for weapons. Weapons for oil.

France is one of the world's top arms seller. It is also home to the super major oil company ‘Total’. France has always been at the heart of the dynamics. Racism against Arab/Muslim communities in France is rampant. Mass murders happen on the very streets of 'liberal' Paris.
No country is spot-free. France, the country of liberty, sells weapons worth billions. USA kills thousands with drones during their operations against 'brutal terrorists'. Every Muslim government that is condemning the attack itself imprisons and tortures artists and activists for offensive expression. ‘Reporters Without Borders’ even condemned the presence of ‘predators of press freedom’ at the Paris March.

Therefore, violence against Charlie Hebdo is not wholly about free speech and Islam. It is also a fightback by a minority community that has been marginalised in a country of white men. It is an attack to display power and assert superiority.
If the Charlie Hebdo attack stemmed from a desire to backlash and prove power, United States could well be the next target, especially after its intervention against Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and Iraq.
Overall, whatever may be the reigning reason behind the Charlie attacks, the harsh reality is that France has lost some of its citizens. Not only that, she was attacked at a belief that she holds dear: Free speech.

Je Suis Charlie

JE SUIS CHARLIE

However controversial or outrageous the magazine's cartoons may have been, they did not deserve this response. Art is free, and always will be. It is up to us to accept it or ignore it, appreciate it or criticize it. Art will always break boundaries and convictions. If there are people who will fight it, there are people who will stand up for it.
The Kouachi brothers intended to avenge their religion and 'die as martyrs'. In their eyes, they did. The community they claimed to represent has condemned them.

Art is a religion that has existed since long before than any other religion did. Art is expression, the most innate human characteristic. Charlie Hebdo stood up for its religion and expressed its beliefs. The cartoonists died martyrs in the eyes of a larger community.