The Aftermath of Charlie Hebdo
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THE READER A publication of the McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute The Aftermath of Paul Marshall Charlie Hebdo: Blasphemy, Free Speech and Freedom of Religion A talk by Paul Marshall at The King’s College in 2015 My thanks to The King’s College for having But one of the first points I want to make is me here and to the audience for coming to these particular instances are markedly atypical this presentation. The massacre of cartoonists of accusations of blasphemy or insulting Islam at Charlie Hebdo was exactly four weeks ago worldwide. In a book which Professor Glader Paul Marshall is the Wilson Distinguished today. We may add to that that last Saturday mentioned, Silenced, we surveyed accusations Professor of Religious Freedom and research in Denmark there was the attempted murder — sometimes by the government but more Professor in Political Science at Baylor of Lars Vilks, a Swedish cartoonist who did often by private parties — of insulting Islam University, Senior Fellow at the Hudson the famous Mohammad as a roundabout dog or blasphemy in some 26 Muslim majority Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, cartoon in 2008. These things are happening countries and in about 14 western countries. Senior Fellow at the Leimena Institute, more and more. We cover thousands of cases involving millions Jakarta, and Visiting Professor at the What I want to do is put these things in a of people. This is a worldwide phenomena. The Christian University of Indonesia. He is the author and editor of more than 20 books on larger context, a global context. Most people things of which we are aware are simply the tip of a very large iceberg. If we look at trends religion and politics, especially religious in the West notice these things only when they freedom, including recently Persecuted happen in the West itself. So if we were asked to worldwide, the number of such accusations and (Thomas Nelson, 2013), Silenced: How look at famous cases, where there is an eruption attacks have been increasing. Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are around blasphemy or apostasy or insulting Choking Freedom Worldwide (Oxford Islam, the things that are likely to come to your University Press, 2011), Blind Spot: When mind would be Western things such as the VAGUE CHARGES Journalists Don’t Get Religion (Oxford murder of Theo van Gogh after he produced a University Press, 2009), Religious Freedom documentary on the status of women in Muslim If we survey the trends of the accusations in the World (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008). lands. covered in Silenced, we can first note that the He is the author of several hundred articles, You might remember he was killed in an charges or accusations are usually vague and this is so even when there is an actual law on the and his writings have been translated into attempted beheading on a street in Amsterdam Albanian, Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, and that was over 10 years ago. Or we would books (in many cases there isn’t). For instance, Dutch, Farsi, French, German, Greek, go back further of course to an event which with ISIS in the Middle East, one of the things Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, inaugurated the modern age of blasphemy — it does with anybody who disagrees with it, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, the fatwa by the Ayatollah Khomeini against Muslims or whomever else, it says, “Well if you Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Ukrainian. the British Indian author Salman Rushdie. The disagree with us you are not a true Muslim. He is in frequent demand for lectures and Iranians have said that the fatwa no longer stands, Therefore, you’ve left Islam, therefore you are an media appearances, including interviews on apostate, therefore we can kill you.” Then they ABC Evening News; CNN; PBS; Fox; the but of course it stands. The only person who can British, Australian, Canadian, South African, remove it is the person who issued it, and he’s kill you. So, apostasy can be used very vaguely. There is also the charge of insulting a heavenly and Japanese Broadcasting Corporations; dead. So Rushdie is still under that threat. Then and Al Jazeera, among many other outlets. there is what we usually call the Danish cartoons religion — that is section 98(f) of the Egyptian penal code. His work has been published in, or the published by Jyllands-Posten in 2005, or the subject of, articles in the New York Times, Swedish cartoons I mentioned earlier, or the “Creating confusion among Muslims” can be Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, film trailer, The Innocence of Muslims, which an offense in Malaysia and is an offense in Iran Economist, Times, Globe and Mail, Toronto had been seen by about three people until the and a few other places. “Imitating Christians” Star, Boston Globe, New Republic, Weekly U.S. government publicized it, or Pastor Terry can get you a prison sentence in Iran, as can Standard, Reader’s Digest, and many other Jones’s threat to burn the Quran, which created “harboring destructive thoughts,” “friendships newspapers and magazines. a lot of fuss worldwide. (His actual burning of with the enemies of God,” and “fighting against a Quran two years later caused almost no stir). God.” My view is that if someone wants to These things are happening regularly, they are fight against God, if I were a gambling man, increasing in number, and they are the ones I would take great odds on the winner. But, which we westerners are usually aware of. They anyway, “fighting against God,” “dissension from happen closer to us. religious dogma,” and “propagation of spiritual liberalism” are offenses drawn from the legal AUGUST 2020 | ISSUE 12 | PAGE 1 codes in Iran. There are many others, But people now remember the killings but I just give this brief list very rapidly of dozens of people in Nigeria. Killings in to give you a sense of the breadth of the Pakistan. Killings in Afghanistan. But, in accusations that exist. fact, those killings took place in January Henceforth, in this lecture, I will and February 2006, four to five months usually use the term ‘blasphemy’ as a after the event. When the cartoons first shorthand for this entire list. came out, there was no spontaneous upwelling of rage. What happened in the intervening months is that three radical imams from Denmark took these POLITICAL cartoons and added a few of their own which were really nasty (the Jyllands- MANIPULATION Posten ones are pretty tame) and went Secondly, such accusations are often around the Middle East showing them shaped by political manipulation. To saying, “This is what they’re saying about give one example: as mentioned, you us.” And then the Organization of the might remember that in 2005 the Danish Islamic conference, an organization newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the largest of some 56 countries and territories, newspaper in Denmark, published a changed the agenda of their January dozen cartoons. They’re usually called 2006 meeting at Mecca from dealing cartoons of Mohammed, though most with terrorism to dealing with what they of them are not actually depictions of called “Islamophobia” and insult to Islam. Mohammed—some are depictions of Out of that meeting in Mecca hosted by fearful cartoonists. The background of the Saudis came a plan of action which this was that a children’s book writer involved boycotts of Danish and other was commissioned to write a book on products, demonstrations, and protests. the life of Mohammed for children. This Many of these spiraled out of control was meant to be a very respectful thing, leading to violence and killing. they would have the life of Jesus, the life Five months after the cartoons came of Buddha and so on, and they wanted out a variety of governments had decided illustrations for it—just drawings. But to make an issue of them and put a lot in the entirety of Denmark the author of time and money into the effort. That’s could not find a single cartoonist who when the eruption happened. So many would do that, and she raised this issue of the things we’re seeing are not just with Flemming Rose, who was the spontaneous eruptions, though of course cultural editor of the Jyllands-Posten and Muslims do get angry about perceived he thought, “We’ve got a problem here. insult or blasphemy, but in most cases We can’t illustrate a children’s book.” if there are widespread demonstrations and death, it’s usually because some governmental figures, or other powerful “You can’t stoke people’s religious beliefs people, want that to happen and stoke it. A clarification here. You will have often unless they’ve got religious beliefs. The heard the phrase, “Oh that’s political not religious,” but that’s not what I’m saying. religious sentiment has to be there in the That’s like saying “Is it blue or is it a foot long?” Things can be both political and religious. Is the Christian Democratic first place.” Party, the governing party in Germany, political or religious? Well, obviously it’s Rose has noted that he used to be both. In order for a government or ISIS based in Moscow — he was a foreign to manipulate religious sentiments, the correspondent in the former Soviet religious sentiments have to be there Union. He said, “I started to notice a in the first place. You can’t manipulate phenomenon in Denmark which we people’s religious beliefs unless they’ve always knew about in Moscow. If you got religious beliefs. The religious start talking about a certain subject sentiment has to be there in the first people look around: “Who might be place.