{UAH} Pojim/WBK: As a life-long secularist, I was surprised by how offensive I found the Charlie cartoons - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke
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As a life-long secularist, I was surprised by how offensive I found the Charlie cartoons - Comment
From what I have gleaned, the Charlie Hebdo magazine seems to have evolved out of the French tradition of extreme satire that predates even the time when they had to resort to chopping the heads off their aristocracy in order to experiment with democracy.
It is, how to put it, rather strongly flavoured stuff. This is how some media practitioners choose to ply the trade, forcing open uncomfortable debates on issues, and raising those dark subjects that lurk in our reptilian minds that are too morally suspect and socially taboo to launder in public.
It has become a trend to show support for freedom of speech by joining the "I am Charlie" campaign, but a lot of genuinely aggrieved people went in the other direction, pointing out that they are not Charlie, that there should be limits to what people are allowed to say about other people even if it is in jest.
It is a strong point to make, because the media has its dark side, doesn't it? We have used everything I suppose, from stone tablets to broadcast, to incite fear and prejudice and worse in people since time immemorial.
For those of us who believe in freedom of speech and of the press, extreme satirists are a real challenge. These enfants terribles remind us how distressing the fight to keep the door open can be. They test our grasp of the risks and rewards involved in that struggle. And remind us that much of the time, the point is to refuse to get dragged into the wrong kind of fight by the bigots who lurk within us and without us.
Arguably, that's why we also need media that refuses to play by the rules of nicety by pointing out the bigotry in all of us. Cartoonists have a distinct advantage – nothing can give offense quite as fast as a succinct depiction that throws readers head-first into an honest reaction.
I am beginning to think that the opportunity to be offended is necessary, instructive. So much so that we shouldn't try to deny ourselves those shocks by restricting media freedom. Leaders shouldn't be the only ones we should enjoy seeing skewered at the pointed end of an ink pen.
Like you, dear reader, I am a bigot. To my shame I can't always stop myself from throwing around collective nouns with great disdain, "ugh, (expletive deleted) men!" being my favourite.
Some of my best friends are bigots. Heck, social life is made up of nothing but people who have very strong ideas about who is right or wrong as opposed to the what of it all – that's what makes it social. This can lead to a perfectly comfortable life as long as you stay in the right milieu.
And because it is easy to live a very secular and superficially religiously tolerant life in Dar, I was surprised by how offensive I found many of the cartoons published by the Charlie Hebdo magazine depicting Muslims, especially Muslim women. Funny? Yes. Also, really annoying. What's with all the stereotyping?
The discomfort also had the effect of forcing me to face an aspect of my changing society that I have been trying to ignore in the hopes that it will go away.
Sometime after the 9/11 attacks in New York, the term Islamism emerged and started accruing mileage. Nothing good ever comes from this kind of terminological "upgrade." Any kind of -ism is very bad news for the ones who get stuck with the label. I thought the term peculiar and uncomfortable and generally avoidable, and so wrapped myself in secular insulation.
But here we are in the mid-teens and the world seems to be tipping towards a reprise of the Crusades, except this time with modern weaponry and considerable decentralisation.
How come we never learn from history? The sea-change that is particularly difficult to witness is how the language around us is changing, how close religious leaders are becoming to politicians, how much politicians insist on wearing their piety on their sleeves, how easily it is becoming to slip into identifying people in terms of groups.
After the Charlie Hebdo killings, there has been a very strong impulse to look at an entire religion as somehow being at fault. Of course there is pushback but it has been swallowed up by a more general groundswell.
Well, to be frank, it is wearisome beyond words to be stuck in a global culture that insists on such a narrow view. This word "Islamism" and its willy nilly usage has got us all nowhere, exciting extreme views and thin skins in everyone who encounters it.
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