Why I am still Charlie

How one provocative publication speaks to the greater issue of free speech

Stepping out of virtual obscurity to the unknowing world, Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine printed weekly in Paris, splashed onto front pages and flashed onto breaking news reports around the world.

A magazine that only printed 60,000 copies a week became the international poster child for the freedom of the press when radical Islamists brutally murdered 12 cartoonists and journalists at the publication’s headquarters in Paris Jan. 7.

In the wake of the attack, “Je Suis Charlie,” translated “I Am Charlie,” became the song sung by an international chorus of supporters. But that chorus was quickly silenced.

Days after the attack, Charlie Hebdo released a cover saying “All is Forgiven” with a cartoon of a crying Prophet Muhammad, holding a sign that read, “I am Charlie.”

Before the new cover ran, everyone was Charlie. Once it printed and the Muslim world reacted, support began to waiver.

According to Anjem Choudary, a radical Islamic cleric in London, the most recent cover of Charlie Hebdo was an “act of war.”

At that point, Charlie Hebdo began to take on blame in the eyes of the public, painted as a provoker. But I want you to know, I am still Charlie.

For years, Charlie Hebdo has been insulting the world’s religious groups, and I am cool with it.

The provocative publication has printed many cartoons that are far from flattering toward the Islamic faith and several illustrations that are anything but graceful toward Christian culture.

From capitalizing on the horrors of Sharia law to exploiting the fundamental Christian belief in the traditional family unit, Charlie Hebdo has delivered many blows to the faith community.

And I am glad they are doing it.

Yet many around the world think it is time the provocateur tones down its free speech. And if they are taking their cues from the Quran, I understand why.

It is written in Quran 9:12, “If they … defame your religion, then fight the leaders of disbelief, … fight them that they might cease.”

How can we, as a free society, allow the offense of the Muslim community — or any religious or political community — be the measure for what is “too far?”

Even Pope Francis cast blame on the publication, according the Huffington Post, claiming that there are “limits” on free speech if it insults someone’s faith. I guess the pope is not well versed in the Islamic faith’s teachings.

According to the Quran, anyone who rejects Allah is an enemy. The holy book commands jihadists to fight the nonbelievers as punishment from Allah.

So if offense is our measure, by simply being a Christian — or just a non-Muslim — I have offended the Islamic world, and the punishment is death. To allow this to be our cultural standard is absurd.

How many times in the last 10 years have you seen the Christian faith used as a measure for offensiveness or insensitiveness?

For goodness sake, if you say “Merry Christmas” too many times, you are labeled a Bible-thumping zealot.

“Offensive” and “insensitive” have become commonplace buzzwords, thrown around with little to no thought behind them. Being such relative terms, who can be the judge of where that line should be drawn?

By my measure, it is better to allow the ebb and flow of the free marketplace of ideas to sort out the frustration. The problem is, rather than allowing the wide spectrum of opinions to establish balance in our society, our politically correct brothers and sisters want to decide for the collective masses just how wide that spectrum is.

Sure, I find many of the cartoons in Charlie Hebdo to be highly offensive. So what? The publication is free to offend, and I am equally free to be offended.

If you do not like it, do not buy it.

Without the freedom to experience a varying chorus of ideas, how can anyone find the song that rings true?

So to Charlie Hebdo, I say keep the offensive cartoons coming and, even though I am sure to be offended by your work again, I stand by my claim — I am still Charlie.

GOINS-PHILLIPS is the opinion editor.