Last Sunday’s turnout of almost four million people at a number of rallies in France to protest against the terror attacks in Paris sent out a clear message: France is united and will not budge in its defence of freedom of expression, which is a basic pillar of any civilised democracy.
The attendance of 50 world leaders at the Paris rally (it’s a pity no high-profile US official took part), including some Muslim heads of government and State, all of whom wanted to express their solidarity with France, was encouraging. Equally reassuring was the fact that people from all faiths, including Muslims, took part in the demonstrations.
President François Hollande was dignified in his response to the terror attacks; he did not resort to cheap populist rhetoric or knee-jerk reactions and emphasised that France will be stronger in the aftermath of these atrocities. Hollande has also vowed that France will protect all religions, saying that Muslims were the main victims of fanaticism. The President certainly deserves credit for the way he acted during a very challenging time and for keeping the country together.
Where does France go from here? The country will need to review its security set-up after the Paris attacks. The Kouachi brothers who carried out the attacks on Charlie Hebdo were known to the police; one formed part of a Paris jihadist cell that recruited Muslims to fight the US in Iraq, and was given a prison sentence in 2008, and the other is believed to have trained with al-Qaeda in Yemen (which has now claimed responsibility for the attacks on Charlie Hebdo) in 2011.
Both Kouachi brothers were on the US and UK no-fly list.
Were they regularly monitored by the French authorities, and if not, why not? How did they manage to get hold of their arms cache? And Amedy Coulibaly, the man who murdered a policewoman and later four Jewish hostages at a kosher grocery in Paris soon after the Charlie Hebdo killings, was also known to the police. He was a convicted criminal who mingled in jihadist circles. How was he able to get his arms, and was he regularly monitored by the police?
The French government, furthermore, estimates that as many as 1,000 French citizens have gone to fight for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, and some of these have already returned, thus posing a huge security risk for France. How is this problem going to be tackled?
I have little doubt more stringent security legislation will be in the pipeline soon, not only in France but also in other European countries, and this may come at the expense of certain civil liberties, which is a price we will have to pay for increased security. We can also expect much more security co-operation and information sharing between EU member states, as well as a clampdown on people expressing support for or sympathy with acts of terrorism.
We must not fall into the trap set by the jihadists; they want European societies to turn on Muslims
Increased security, however, is only one way of addressing the challenge posed by these jihadists. The French government will have to engage more with Muslim communities and work with them to prevent young Muslims becoming radicalised. If there are certain social conditions that lead to the radicalisation of Muslim youths, then these must be addressed.
French Muslim leaders, on the other hand, must continue to be vocal in their condemnation of Islamist extremism and to speak a language of tolerance and respect for different opinions.
This is a very delicate time for France, and in the aftermath of the Paris killings some people might be tempted to equate Islam with terrorism and violence, and to believe that a ‘clash of civilisations’ is inevitable, which is exactly what the extremists are aiming at. Unfortunately, there have been a number of attacks on mosques in France after the Paris terrorist atrocities; hopefully we will not see more of such incidents.
There is no doubt in my mind that Islam has been hijacked by groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State, which give this religion a very negative image. We must therefore not fall into the trap set by the jihadists; they want European societies to turn on Muslims which will then lead to civil strife, and of course, more violence by the extremists.
What about the debate about freedom of expression? There are always limits to freedom of expression, and anything that incites violence or racism is illegal in many countries. I personally find many of Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons to be offensive, yet as long as the cartoons do not break the law they will be published.
However, I think the time is right for a debate to be held in many European countries about the ethical aspects of what should be published, and what exactly constitutes bad taste.
People’s sensitivities cannot be ignored, especially when it comes to religion. Ultimately, though, when it comes to what should be published, it is a matter for the media itself to decide, as long as this is within the framework of the law. If I find a particular publication offensive I simply won’t buy it.
France made the headlines after the attack on Charlie Hebdo but it is important to recognise that this jihadist threat is a global one, not just a European one. Just before the siege of Paris, 2,000 people are said to have been slaughtered by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram in northern Nigeria, while in Yemen, 37 people were killed by al-Qaeda on the same day as the Charlie Hebdo killings.
These killings, where many of the victims were Muslims (just like the victims of the Pakistani Taliban atrocity in Peshawar last month), hardly made the headlines, yet they proved that rather than a ‘clash of civilisations’ the conflict we are witnessing today is more one between moderate and radical Islam. The important thing is that moderate Islam and the West should work together and adopt a common front against the jihadists.