The trial of (some of) the people suspected of being involved in the 2015 terrorist attack at the offices of French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" began today in that Paris. In an act of defiance the magazine republished cartoons that sparked protests in several Muslim countries. No doubt many religious apologists and Islamists will get upset again, that is their prerogative, but my view is that it's entirely appropriate for this organisation to do this, it's signaling an important secular and ethical point, that violence and terrorism should not prevail over freedom of conscience and speech. I was glad to see that President Macron defended the act, saying that it's not the place of the French Government to interfere with a free press, and I agree with him, it's a shame our own politicians here in the UK aren't as decisive in such matters.
The 2015 killings in Paris led to a whole slew of terrorist attacks in France, killing more than 250 people, we shouldn't forget that such acts aren't limited to "a few bad apples", views on blasphemy and what may be justified in the name of it are very widely held, especially in the Muslim world. A recent Pew poll showed that 86% of people in Egypt, for example, believe that apostasy (i.e. exercising the right of freedom of conscience by leaving a religion) should be punishable by death, that's over 80 million people! Egypt's top Islamic authority said (on Wednesday) that re-publishing the cartoons was a "criminal act", clearly opposition to freedom of speech and conscience hasn't budged in some parts. We're left with the rather ironic but profoundly obvious statement that the editor of the magazine, Stephane Charbonnier (Charb), made at an Associated Press meeting in 2012, he said, "I live under French law. I don't live under Koranic law." Unfortunately that system was unable to prevent his murder by Islamist thugs intent on imposing their medieval superstitions on us all through threats of deadly violence, let's hope the families of the victims are able to receive some justice soon.
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