What we really have to fear
If in the Middle East there would be a newspaper existing publishing sartire, critisizing christians, would we be able to laugh about it !? Actually I am not sure about that. Maybe we would, or maybe the new headlines in our newspapers would say: "Islamist terror has its eye on christians in europe! "
This article is supposed to show my point of view regarding on how we should deal with the tragedy that 12 people were killed for working for a magazine picturing criticism and provocation on political and cultural topics.
We all know that it's going to happen. That this incident is leading to a debate on priciples about freedome of speech, about political correctness and about the vexed subject Islamophobia.
Freedome of speech is an important part of modern society and absolutely essential for building up a political system that people can trust in and identify with, but we should never forget that with freedome comes responsibility. Responsibilty for not making other people feel offended by what we say, responsibility for knowing how far we can go and where to stop. Criticism should be voiced freely. But here the question arises wether we are always able to define that small line that is seperating criticism from offense.
It is good to be critical. I am critical. Also critical of too much criticism.
Of course what happened in Paris on Wednesday is absolutely unexcusable and unbearable no matter what the trigger was, I just want to make clear that this should not be a reason for us to be afraid of Islam and moslem people! The massacre in France has nothing to do with Islam, but with terrorism. We should open our eyes and see that this religious totalitarianism is about to destroy all the progress that
we have made so far in trying to bridge the gaps that keep us from
accepting and understanding each other.
We all should know that there is a big difference between Islam and Islamist Terror and that by building up this hate and refusal against Islam as a religion we are victimizing innocent people. Extremists like those responsible for the massacre in Paris are abusing Islam and the name of god to justify their immane actions. Hiding behind the name of god they feel strong and untouchable. Regarding this we should find a way to make them feel less strong, we should, instead of judging people for their believe, help to protect those who are themselves fleeing from Islamistic Terror in their countries (Hello Pegida, yes I am talking about you !) and realize that in order to fight against terrorism we all have to unite.
Its not Islam that is threatening us, but individual persons using religion as a weapon. By being afraid of Islam we are providing them with power, we allow them to control our thoughts and opinions. Control a nations' thoughts just by using two simple words: allahu akbar.
While doing some research for this article I stumbled upon a very interesting article, published by the huffington post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mehdi-hasan/charlie-hebdo-free-speech_b_6462584.html
It is analyzing the social and political consequences of the massacre in paris from a in my opinion very downtotheearth point of view, far away from all that "je suis charlie hype"
