Charlie Hebdo Shooting Recalls the Paris Magazine’s Previous Attack

In the wake of the killing of 12 people at the offices of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday, many are noting that this attack is not the first the magazine has suffered. And now, responses to an earlier assault may be, unfortunately, relevant again.

Charlie Hebdo’s offices were bombed in 2011, after the magazine released an issue in which the Prophet Muhammad was satirically billed as “guest editor.” The issue included a cartoon of Muhammad and was renamed “Charia Hebdo,” a reference to Shariah law.

At The New Yorker, Amy Davidson writes of the aftermath of that attack:

“In 2011, just six days after the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine under threat for having run cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, was gutted by a firebomb, the staff put out a new issue with a cover drawing of a bearded, presumably Muslim man kissing a cartoonist. The caption was ‘L’amour plus fort que la haine,’ which translates to ‘Love: stronger than hate.’ The cartoon was a properly irreverent combination — an affirmation of the most universal truth, a commitment to their own very particular identity. To be brave, one needn’t ever be saccharine. The magazine and its artists, editors, and staff believed in all of that and lived those values, in a way that few of us are ever asked to.”

After the 2011 bombing, some were critical of the magazine. In a letter to The International Herald Tribune (now The International New York Times), Celina Maria Pedro de Vasconcelos wrote, “It’s disturbing to see how the principle of freedom of the press in the West continues to be confused with free-for-all permission to target various cultures with slander, innuendo and disrespect. The consequences of mocking the Prophet Muhammad should not surprise us.”

But in another letter to The Tribune, Sohail Z. Husain, a pediatrician and member of the Muslim Writers Guild of America, paired criticism of the magazine’s decisions with condemnation of those who reacted to those decisions with violence. “As a Muslim-American belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community,” he wrote, “I condemn the firebombing in Paris last week of Charlie Hebdo.” And he added:

“In his lifetime, the Prophet strictly prohibited anyone from harming those who mocked him. Instead, he prayed for them and returned insult with kindness, so much so that some of their children actually decided to join the Prophet. If he were the guest editor for Charlie Hebdo, as fictitiously suggested, the Prophet would have unequivocally decried the bombing but also would have called on citizens of all faiths to make merry by working together, not by making a jest of one another’s saints.”

And as in 2011, Charlie Hebdo has quickly begun publishing again, after a fashion. As of this writing, its website bears the phrase “Je Suis Charlie” — as the BBC notes, a reference to a Twitter hashtag trending Wednesday, with messages from users around the world.

Update: Qasim Rashid, national spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, USA, of which Dr. Husain is also a member, echoes Dr. Husain’s condemnation of violence. He told Op-Talk: “While the cartoons may be offensive to Muslims, there’s zero justification for any kind of violent response. Nothing in Islam permits that violent response. In fact, the Quran specifically condemns a violent response.”

“We have to remember that Muslims are just as pained by this horrible attack as anyone else,” he added. “Rather than waiting for Muslims to condemn it, recognize we do condemn it, and let’s find a way to have dialogue to improve relations going forward.”

Candle March by Protestors