Final moments of the hostage crisis at a kosher supermarket in Vincennes |
Central Paris
yesterday was wound up like a watch spring. It was a day of sirens,
helicopters, news bulletins; police cordons and anxious crowds; of young
children led away from schools to safety. Police vehicles moving at very high
speed eastwards and the closure of the eastern Ring created road and rail
chaos, impacting almost everyone. It was a day, like the previous two, of blood
and horror in and around Paris, one that ended with France unsure whether this
drama is now truly over or a predictor of more cultural, religious and
political violence to come. Twin co-ordinated operations at the kosher market
in eastern Paris and the industrial park near Dammartin-en-Goƫle to
the north-east resulted in the efficient dispatch of those who clearly preferred
martyrdom to surrender at a cost of several innocent hostages’ lives in
addition to the carnage at Charlie Hebdo the day before. The killing of a dozen
people in Wednesday’s attack has prompted an outpouring of tributes from
cartoonists around the world, flooding the Internet with images ranging from
the elegiac to the scabrously rude. If, as some have suggested, this was indeed
France’s 9/11, perhaps the shock was so much greater; the violence having come
from their own, French-speakers, market-grown terrorists, speaking the argot of
the heavily-immigrant banlieues as well as the French of Voltaire.
CH has always been at the sharp
end of political and social satire and its origins were in the ‘do it because
we can’ mentality of the 1960’s French radicals who went further than anyone
else to lampoon, ridicule and poke sharp sticks at almost everyone who set
themselves up as a target. Most are either offended or amused – precisely the
intention of the cartoonists since that is the purpose of satire. But,
disturbing and hitherto unanswered questions remain. If Muslims in general are
offended by caricatures of Mohammed, how far are the rank and file prepared to
go? Despite much soothing platitude from senior imams last night, distancing
their version of Islam from the bloodshed and carnage, it would seem that for
some, mere offence is not enough and they invoke darker passages in the Qu’ran
and the hadiths to support their view. One hardliner refused last night to
unilaterally condemn the CH killings – invoking a verse from the Qu’ran
inviting those who ‘insult a prophet’ to be killed. But to whom is this verse
addressed; to other Muslims, the kuffar, or everybody? Because the
Muslim response to it matters. If the kuffar, he is ignorant of his blasphemy
and should not therefore be held responsible. If to the Muslim, he should know
better than to be rude about one whom his faith teaches to love more than
family. Indeed, to which ‘prophet’ does the verse refer?
Istanbul - outside the French Embassy |
Questions that should have been
asked months ago now clamour for answers. How did the perpetrators slip the
intelligence net? How large and how organized is the radicalized part of
France’s Muslim population, the largest in Europe? How deep is the rift between
France’s secular values, of individual, sexual and religious freedom, of
freedom of the press and the freedom to shock, and a growing Muslim
conservatism that rejects many of these values in the name of religion? And how
can the rift be bridged, if at all by politicians who do little but bleat
forlornly about unity?
Bravo, John. Well said. Saw your comment on Sarah Tuttle-Singer's FB page. I too am a Parisian, still feeling shocked and numb. Hope you will be marching on Sunday
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lisa. If nothing else, people need to get out in number to proclaim the simple message "No. We will not go quietly into the night and no, you will not make us afraid, no matter how hard you try to strike fear into our hearts."
DeleteAnd especially if you're Jewish.
Great piece! Indeed these are the questions that not only France, but all of Western Society has to ask (maybe even the whole world). What's for sure is that this won't be the last attack. It won't end until those in power figure out how to answer those questions.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your response. I thought it better to publish here rather than on TOI where I originally commented.
Delete