The recent attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo by Islamic extremists is a reminder to all of us that the liberty of free speech comes with its own risks. It is also a reminder that we can only enjoy this freedom if the public supports or tolerates those who exercise that right, even if an individual or group opposes the substance of the message.
As journalists, we have received occasional threats of violence, warnings of litigation and promises of financial ruin in response to the service we provide to our community, even in our quiet corner of the U.S. Usually these threats come from people who are ignorant of the importance of a free and independent press, and we can largely ignore them. Their attempts to put anger into action usually turn out to be a waste of their time. In general, free nations are able to protect those who exercise their freedom to speak.
It was a different outcome for the 12 defenseless people slaughtered by gunmen in France. To murder someone for their words, to take the life of a person because their humorous doodles break religious rules, is an act that reveals the weakness of the ideology (and the frustration the followers of that ideology must feel) when the world ignores their ineffectual stupidity.
As I read of the attacks, a profound sense of anger came over me, probably because I have written satire and controversial stories as a journalist. I felt a connection to 10 of the victims, colleagues who shared my profession. The anger I felt, at first, went toward the Islamist terrorists we’ve faced over and over again. At every turn, these folks who originate from the Middle East appear to provoke their declared enemies with outrageous acts of insane savagery, as if poking a stick into a nest of hornets is the only strategy they can consider.
Then I saw the response of the French people, the support from across the planet. The openly public and sustained expressions of solidarity from these people and their leaders are an important symbol, with its own cautionary lesson.
We must stand together.
Je suis Charlie.
And yes, we should never allow this horrific crime to provide justification for people and organizations to retaliate with their own acts of prejudice and ethnic violence. We should refrain from retaliating against the followers of Islam, in general, for the behavior of individuals or organizations claiming kinship to Islam.
In that same vein, however, we cannot allow the leaders of Islam, whether they are individuals, religious groups or the governments of nations operating under the star and crescent of this ideology, to avoid their responsibility to eliminate or incarcerate the extremists operating within their own borders.
Every nation has its religious nutjobs. Even we have our crazies who use extreme interpretations of Christian belief to justify horrific acts against individuals, organizations and governments. Unlike some Middle Eastern countries, we accept the responsibility to make real attempts to anticipate and respond to our homegrown extremists, whether they force young girls to accept statutory rape in illegal polygamous marriages, engage in mass suicides in the jungles of Guyana or continuously attempt to disrupt funerals and other solemn occasions with crass protests.
The people in free nations may denounce the behavior, the other more reasonable practitioners of a religion may distance themselves from their extremist brethren, and our political leaders may offer words of support to the victims of heinous acts of religious insanity, but in the final analysis, this is an impotent response.
It is time for all countries to deal with the extremists originating within their borders. It is time for all the nations of the world to accept their reasonable responsibility for the behavior of their citizens, or find that the world will exclude them from the community of nations.
We — and by “we” I mean all nations, organizations and individuals — should refrain from engaging in trade or travel with countries that refuse to enact and enforce laws that protect the rest of the world from people trying to enforce extremist ideologies on the citizens of other nations, regardless of the religion from which the extremism originates.
To fail to respond as a world community is to accept further acts of ideological violence, endure unending years of a futile “War on Terror,” and stand with our collective hands in our pockets as the world continues to descend into the savage future of angry posturing and willful ignorance.
Andrew Birden is the current publisher and former editor of FiddleheadFocus.com, an online news journal based in the St. John Valley of northern Maine. He is the recipient of the Maine Press Association’s Freedom of Information and Newspapers in Education awards.