There is not, however, just the danger of an authoritarian and intolerant shift. What has happened in Paris obliges us to also reflect on a number of aspects of our society. Firstly there is freedom of the press and its possible contradictions with respect for what believers consider sacred and untouchable. It seems important to immediately clarify an inalienable distinction. One can criticize the satire and criticism of a religion as politically irresponsible, morally ambiguous and even aesthetically vulgar, but not all that which is considered inappropriate or open to criticism should be considered as forbidden or illegal. The legal limits can only be those established by the Penal Code (slander, abuse), a protection, one must add, that should not only refer to religion but must also protect all individual and collective values. Responsible ethics should oblige us all to assess our behaviour in view of its foreseeable consequences. Allowing each individual the right to establish what is an intolerable offence would, however, have a devastating effect on coexistence based on freedom and dialogue.
In Iran recently, a number of women had acid thrown at them because they were walking down the street dressed in an “unorthodox” manner according to traditionalist Muslims. In India, one great Muslim artist, M.F. Husain, died in exile after being forced to abandon his country following death threats from radical Hindus who considered offensive the way in which he portrayed female Hindu goddesses. A book by, Wendy Doniger, an important American expert on India, was withdrawn from bookshops by the publisher Penguin India following threats from those considering it offensive to their religion. As one can see, the problem does not only concern Islam, although Islam currently presents the most dramatic case.
On this subject one must add that, while rejecting Islamophobia and attacks on an entire religious community, arbitrarily included in the category of terrorist violence, one must also express the hope that this same community will voice not only unambiguous condemnation of all violence, but also a self-critical reflection, all too often replaced by a denunciation of the responsibilities of others, when not speaking of outrageous theories about plots.
The West has serious and undeniable responsibilities; firstly colonialism and with it humiliation of a great civilisation; then extended support for dictators, followed more recently by military intervention that not only deposed tyrants, but also destroyed the states that the West wanted to free, causing anarchy and political-territorial fragmentation. There has also been an only apparent integration of old and new immigrant communities in economically and socially alienated and ghetto-like realities. It is up to us to acknowledge this, as a first step in the search for more respectful, supportive and, above all, more sensible policies.
But the task is also the responsibility of Muslims. There are some who still consider it unacceptable to demand that those with no links to violence should distance themselves from those who are. And yet it is important and necessary, as was the condemnation expressed by Italian Communists, not only distancing themselves from the Red Brigades, destined to be defeated when the Italian Communist Party stopped considering them “comrades who make mistakes.” This occurred during the years in which profound self-criticism on the revolution and the Soviet model matured within the party. The same has been said recently by the philosopher Abdenour Bidar, who published in the Huffington Post an “open letter to the Muslim world”, denouncing the “refusal to acknowledge that this monster was born to you” launching a distressed and brave appeal, expressed with words that, if used by a non-Muslim, would certainly have been accused of being “Islamophobic.” “These are your chronic diseases. An inability to create lasting democracies in which freedom of conscience regarding religious dogmas is acknowledged as a moral and political right; a chronic difficulty in improving the condition of women moving towards equality, responsibility and freedom; an inability to sufficiently separate political power from control exercised by religious authorities; an inability to implement respect, tolerance and an effective acknowledgement of religious pluralism and religious minorities.”
If we wish to break the spiral that threatens to crush us all and reduce us all to the lowest levels of humanity and civilisation, there is a great deal of work to be done, by us and by them. But each will have to find the courage to start by acknowledging their own faults, their own responsibilities. It is only in this manner that we will be able to create a coexistence in which it will at last be possible, albeit respecting all the differences be they religious or not, to abolish the same contradistinction between “us” and “them”.
Translated by Francesca Simmons
The original article was published on the Italian newspaper “La Stampa” on January 11th, 2015. The Italian version is available here