CHARLIE HEBDO AND THE WAR WITH ISLAMISM
Masochism and the War with Islamism
It rained heavily the day after the massacre at the offices
of Charlie Hebdo. The downpour felt apposite.
As I watched the scenes from France, Paris and London never felt so
close. As indeed did Berlin, Madrid, Rome and all the other great capitals of
Europe. That is how it should be, for it was Europe and the ideals of the
European enlightenment that were under attack, in short, ‘Je Suis Charlie.’
However after the massacre, like insects after an earthquake,
the apologists, the masochistic self-hating liberals and Islamist fellow
travellers of the far left came crawling out from under their stones. It seems
now that there is no act of barbarity too great that they will not seek to
justify it. The usual mantra being it’s all our fault. It is Western
Imperialism, the legacy of colonialism, the adventures of Tony Blair, it is
poverty, and it is cultural hegemony, Western materialism or cultural
insensitivity, sometimes it is a combination of all these things. What it is most
certainly not about is Islam. Above all else first it is all our fault.
As Pascal Bruckner points out in The Tyranny of Guilt, there
is an extraordinary egoism in this parade of self-loathing and guilt. No matter
what the death cult terrorists say their motives are it is not they but we who
count, it is always ‘The West’ that wields the real actor. As someone
anonymously commented on my piece about ShamiWitness (see
below). ‘But when u r going to write
about the creators of terror? America and israel [sic] and the European union?’
The real creators, the real movers and shakers, that’s us, we are the only
ones with agency, those who commit acts of barbarous violence are little more
than puppets.
It does not take much imagination to see that this is simply
a colonial mindset inverted. At heart it is as every bit as contemptuous of
individual Arab citizens as any pith helmeted colonialist.
However such thinking stretches way beyond the Middle East
and the old colonial empires; thus we see John Pilger and Oliver Stone conclude
that the Maiden protests could not have happened spontaneously, but must be the
work of the all-powerful ‘West.’ Once again ordinary Ukrainians are little more
than marionettes manipulated by the CIA, NATO, EU, you take your pick, or can
opt for all three. They of course cannot see this manipulation, for to shed
light on the real processes at work requires the Illuminati of the international
commentariat, such as Stone, Pilger Michael Moore. Oddly they all seem to come
from free ‘Western’ societies.
However back to the Charlie Hebdo massacres. If we are now to
seriously confront the reality of our predicament it is essential that we our
clear about several things.
1) We are at war, not
with ‘terror, ‘that is an absurd proposition, but with radical Islam/Islamism.
Some I know are uncomfortable with this rhetoric, believing that this simply
ratchets up the violence and legitimises terrorists as ‘warriors.’ However behaving
as if we are simply dealing with a particularly violent form of criminality,
itself caused by a tiny minority of
fanatics hasn't worked so far and will not work. The Jihadis, of course, know
they are at war and have created a relatively sophisticated strategy to fight
that war. Here is not the place to discuss the required response to that
strategy, merely to point out that being clear in our own mind that we are at
war will immediately enable us to act more decisively. Our allies in this war
must be moderate Muslims and ex-Muslims who support democracy and free speech,
though taking part in the struggle will make uncomfortable demands of some
respecting some articles of Islamic doctrine.
2) The cosy lie that
the kind of attacks we saw in Paris are ‘nothing
to do with Islam’ simply has to be demolished. This means ceasing to
obfuscate, the roots of the aggression we face come from within Islam itself.
In particular the Salafi/Wahhabist ideology that continues to pour like sewage
from a broken pipe from Saudi Arabia. No struggle against Islamic fanaticism
can ultimately succeed with countries like Saudi Arabia as allies.
3) Appeasement, even if it were desirable, is not an option.
The Quran quoting fanatics with the Kalashnikovs are not simply interested in
censoring images of Mohammed, or in concessions to Sharia law, or any number of
multicultural gestures, they want it all. Every concession is viewed merely as
a sign of western weakness, from the pixilating of cartoons to the excessive
concern with Islamic religious sensibilities.
4) Being offended is not life threatening, it can be
upsetting, it can ruin your day and even make you lose your appetite, but it is
not of itself life threatening. I am offended every day by religion. The
constant outpouring of the vilest views by some politicians holding all that I
hold dear in contempt, offends me, but I live with it. It is the price I/we pay for living in a free
society. I can protest, blog, tweet my indignation.
To illustrate my point here is a stick man.
|
| Prophet Mohamed |
It cannot be said often enough, people who get over excited about cartoon pictures are not fully grown up. Satire may wound our beliefs at times but it is essential that all ideas be subjected to critique argument and yes satire and ridicule. In any genuinely free society religion cannot enjoy special protection from scrutiny. What it can demand is protection for worshippers to practice their faith freely without interference, provided they stay within the bounds of the law.
5) We will not win this war by constantly surrendering more
and more of our basic freedoms and civil liberties. We must learn, as we did
with the IRA campaign, to live with a certain degree of risk. With the existing
framework of law, give or take some minor tweaking, the security services have
more than enough powers to disrupt terror networks and prevent the majority of
potential atrocities. That said some attacks will succeed, I am not sure that, in
particular those of the ‘lone-wolf’ variety, they can be completely prevented.
Though, and this will be no comfort to the victims, I'll wager that whatever
casualties such attacks cause, they will be only a tiny proportion of those
killed on the roads each year.
6) Finally to win this war we must regain our confidence in
the values of the European enlightenment. These are great values that underpin
some enormous cultural, political and scientific developments. These
developments have transformed the world for the better. They have, in the words of George Orwell,
created a state of affairs worth fighting for. Isn't it, as Stephane
Charbonnier the Editor of Charlie Hebdo stated, “Better to die on ones feet
than live on ones knees?”
