“Love is stronger than
hate” says the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, in
its latest issue – of course, in their own inimitable acerbic style. The magazine
was firebombed on November 2, 2011 for satirizing radical Islamists. The
cartoon on the cover page of the magazine had depicted Muhammad promising
“100 lashes if you don’t die from laughter.”
magazine has been operating from the offices of Liberation, a leading
leftwing daily founded by Jean-Paul Sartre.
cartoons were Islamophobic and childish, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who herself
was at the receiving end of Islamist violence, writes:
“This self-censorship goes
beyond a reticence to display representations of the Islamic prophet. Fear
of Islamist violence has curtailed critical discussions of the Quran, and silenced
those who would decry the treatment of women in some Islamic communities.
… … … For militant Islamists, there is no ideological distinction
between firebombing a newspaper’s headquarters and murdering a filmmaker like
Theo Van Gogh.
… … Finally, let’s not
overlook that though there are Muslims who may react with violence, many more
are non-militants who may not like Muhammad satirized but who have accepted
free speech. Why should we presume that Muslims will be provoked to violence by
childish drawings?” (http://www.huffingtonpost.ca)
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