Top: Georges Wolinski, Jean Cabut (Cabu), Stéphane Charbonnier (Charb)
Bottom: Bernard Maris, Bernard Velhac (Tignous) (Image credit: AFP/Metronews)
[updates below]
I’m in the US right now, so heard the horrific news from Paris when waking up this morning. I’m in a state of shock. I’ve had tears in my eyes. I cannot believe what has happened. For me this is more than a terrorist attack and with twelve people—journalists, writers, cartoonists, intellectuals—murdered in cold blood. This happened in my city and to people I knew, not personally but via their writings, drawings, and media appearances, and to whom I have linked numerous times on this blog (here, here, here, here, here, and also here, here, here, and, above all, here). Bernard Maris was one of my favorite economists, whom I’ve been reading and listening to on Friday mornings on France Inter since the 1990s. The only thing I can do at this moment is assert, out of solidarity, that “Je suis Charlie” and be present, in spirit, with the rally presently underway at the Place de la République.
I’ll have more on this, obviously.
UPDATE: The political scientist Jean-Yves Camus, who was was a regular contributor to Charlie Hebdo, had this commentary on Le Monde’s website (posted at 14:11 Paris time)
tous les gens que je connaissais sont morts, ce que je peux vous dire, c’est qu’on a jamais vu, dans l’histoire de notre pays, un organe de presse être méthodiquement décimé selon un mode opératoire militaire. Aucun journal n’a été ainsi attaqué, car il y a un principe qui est celui de la liberté de la presse, qui était respecté jusqu’à présent. C’est un stade de l’escalade inimaginable. Les gens qui travaillaient à Charlie Hebdo n’ont aucun sentiment de haine envers qui que ce soit, surtout pas envers les musulmans. Ils sont dans la critique des religions. Ceux qui ont commis ces attentats n’ont rien compris. On est dans la haine absolue, la négation absolue de la pensée. En France, on a depuis trois siècles une presse qui a contribué à faire tomber bien des pouvoirs, la presse est libre et les Français y sont attachés, si les auteurs pensent qu’ils pourront faire tomber ainsi la liberté de la presse, ils se trompent. La première victime de l’idéologie islamiste radicale, comme le disait Charlie, ce sont les musulmans.
2nd UPDATE: My friend Claire Berlinski, who happened to be walking near Charlie Hebdo’s office when the attack happened, has posted, on a US blogging site on which she’s a commentator, this first-hand account. Thanks for this, Claire.
3rd UPDATE: My blogging confrère Arthur Goldhammer has a commentary on the “Tragedy at Charlie Hebdo.”
4th UPDATE: Art Goldhammer, saying “Let’s not sacralize Charlie Hebdo,” expanded on his blog post at the invitation of Al Jazeera America.
5th UPDATE: The Union des Organisations Islamiques de France (UOIF), which is the most “Islamist” of France’s large Islamic organizations, has issued a strong, unambiguous statement condemning the attack on Charlie Hebdo. The Grande Mosquée of Paris, which is more institutional and “moderate,” has issued an equally strong declaration.
6th UPDATE: Jonathan Chait of New York magazine has a dead on-target commentary on “Charlie Hebdo and the right to commit blasphemy.”
7th UPDATE: Buzzfeed has published “22 heartbreaking cartoons from artists responding to the Charlie Hebdo shooting.”
8th UPDATE: Libération’s Laurent Joffrin has an editorial declaring that “‘Charlie’ vivra” (‘Charlie’ will live).
9th UPDATE: Matt Welch of Reason.com’s Hit & Run Blog says “‘Je suis Charlie’? No, you’re not, or else you might be dead.”
Reblogged this on Multicultural Meanderings and commented:
A lot will be written about this with good reason. Arun’s post captures it well.
Thanks, Andrew.
Arun, we’re in shock. I’m watching C’est dans l’air. Maris was a frequent commentator, there. Wolinski and Cabu — cartoonists I had so much trouble with when I first came to France more than 40 years ago because I didn’t get the context. I learned. They were my teachers. Tignous — my best friend is devastated because he was her cousin’s son-in-law.
I hear you, Ellen.
Yes, I have spent many hours struggling to understand the cartoons of Wolinski. At first, I thought that I needed only to translate the words to see the meaning. But so often the meaning was deeper than the words. For me, Georges Wolinski was the Georges Brassens of cartoonists. I will never be able to read another issue of Paris Match without feeling sad.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/lqwtul7
> twelve people—journalists, writers, cartoonists, intellectuals >
And 2 policemen guarding the offices
Not only people (even if not intellectuals) but also symbols of the authority of the state.
Horrific, the whole thing.
Bob, yes, the two policemen, of course.
I grew up with hara kiri and charlie hebdo. We would avidly read these every week and laugh and comment in our high school yard in central Paris. Perhaps the closest for Americans who did not know them or their humour would be the Onion, though Charlie had a lot more cartoons than the Onion and was a lot more anarchist. I will miss Wolinsky, Cabu and all the other victims but I will not miss Charlie Hebdo because there is no way that these fuc…rs will ever shut Charlie Hebdo down. They don’t know us French very well if they think they can achieve that. Thanks to Obama and Kerry and others for their condolences.
Yes, they won’t shut Charlie Hebdo down. See Laurent Joffrin’s editorial in the update above.
I am aghast and heartbroken at what has happened — though, sadly, not surprised. I cannot help but think of the cowardice of those like Yale University Press who refused to print cartoons because they were intimidated by the likes of the murderers in Paris. I would like to say the thugs won’t win, but sometimes I wonder.
Arun, I feel for you and all of France. A black day.
At this point, and in the absence of some kind of collection action that the Western democracies can take to protect themselves from terrorism, the events of today may have proven the wisdom of what Yale did.
Clearly, today’s atrocity makes it obvious that printing things that are offensive to the Islamists is quite literately a choice between being a dead hero or a live coward. I’d like to think that I would always chose the path that Charlie Hebdo followed but I’ve never faced that agonizing choice and I can’t say that I’m prepared to judge those who have.
Mitch, I understand your point — but I firmly believe that the only way to stop these people is showing a unified front against them. Every news outlet that cares about free speech and condemns these murders should prominently feature the “offensive” cartoons on their front pages tomorrow, as a form of protest. When many cower in fear, then the few who stand brave can be easily eliminated. But if all stand together, then it is the cowardly killers who have no choice but to stand down.
@ DHMCarver,
I agree with you. The problem is that we tend to view these things in isolation and cannot bring ourselves to act collectively. Yes, if every newspaper, magazine and television station had run the cartoons after the initial threat to the Danish journalists and then done the same each time a group like Charlie Hebdo was threatened, that would work because it’s impossible for the Islamists to kill everybody.
Well said Arun. All of France weeps with you. Freedom of speech once more threatened by demented fanatics.
I suspect that the repercussions of this barbarity will be significant well beyond the tragic deaths of the individuals who were slaughtered today. Even now, people are talking about how this tragedy will improve the FN’s chances of taking power. If these killers turn up in, say, ISIS-controlled parts of Iraq or Syria the implications for French society will be profound and very disturbing.
I think we must be honest with ourselves. The natural suspicion is that the killers have disappeared into the Muslim community in France—a community that is frequently castigated as being in France but not of France. We can argue about whether that is a fair categorization (and as an advocate for integration, I think it’s unfair for a variety of reasons) but I don’t see how the question can be avoided.
Mao Zedong once said that the guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea. As his statement implies, without at least some level of support from the people of a particular community, it is difficult and perhaps impossible for revolutionaries or terrorists or even ordinary criminals to successfully hide from the police.
Certainly, the planning of this operation needed at least some degree of acquiescence among more than a handful of people living in France. At this point, there must be many people in France who know or suspect the identity of the killers. Their escape from France will require both the active support of some people there and the willingness to remain silent of a much larger group. This is the meaning of Mao’s axiom.
Do these killers enjoy any level of support in France? Assuming that they are hiding in the Muslim community, the question is will that community choose to shelter the killers as they, presumably, leave France for a country where they will be welcomed as heroes? Or will the revulsion to this barbarity among ordinary French Muslims (and which seems to be slowly building in the admittedly perhaps non-representative parts of the Beur media to which I have been directed by friends) mean that the killers will be quickly identified and delivered to the police?
Now we will see the reaction of the Muslim community in France. And I believe that the majority of French people will be looking to see whether the French Muslims are simply people who share a physical space with the French but remain outsiders in separate communities, who are perhaps even antagonistic towards France? Right or wrong, fair or unfair, my reading of the French media (and my own heart) tells me that this will be a test.
Mitch, thanks for your comments, which are always interesting. I will say, though, that I reject the notion that there is a such thing in France as a Muslim “community.” There are some 4½ million people in France who will say they are Muslim if the question is put to them – and whether or not they practice the religion, the majority of whom do not – but that does not organically link them to one another. For those who have French nationality, they are citizens of the republic and are no obligation to express themselves according to some identity that others may ascribe to them. As for explicitly Muslim/Islamic organizations, the major ones have already expressed themselves on the terrorist attack (see update above).
I think you are entirely right about this.
But I also think we could profit greatly by looking at recent developments. Specifically, that the three attackers seem to have been identified very quickly and their escape plan has fallen apart. One has apparently surrendered. The other two are on the run.
I posited that the nature of these operations suggested that a number of people in France, probably Muslims, likely were in on the plot in some way and that a much larger number very likely must had at least some inkling that these men were planning something. Also, and more relevant for our our purposes, I speculated that the killers successful escape would depend upon their being hidden in certain areas where the inhabitants might have been expected to be sympathetic to their cause. Clearly, their escape plan, whatever it was, has fallen apart. The question is why.
I know that it is early days but I’d like to suggest the possibly that strong condemnations from leading Muslim organizations and the fact that quite literally everyone in France (except perhaps for a certain “comedian” who appears to be waiting to see which way the wind is blowing) seems to have had a similar reaction may have played a role in disrupting the killers’ escape plans. I suggest that the aftermath of this atrocity does not seems to be playing out as either the killers thought it would or as certain authors of books, especially a toothless one who is on the cover of Charlie Hebdo, would have lead us to expect.
Obviously something went badly wrong with the escape plan almost from the start but it also looks like every door in France has been shut to the killers. And apparently in places that seem to have surprised the killers. Again, we must await developments to see whether things unfolded as I suspect but you must admit it’s an interesting possibility.
As an addition to Update #5, I would like to direct attention to this very strong statement by Hassan Chalghoumi, an imam in the Paris suburb of Drancy, who has visited the scene of the crime and issued a very strong and extremely moving condemnation of the attacks.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ohth5jn
Hassan Chalghoumi is a decent, honorable man but is, perhaps unfortunately, a creation of the media and politicians, and whose words carry little weight among French Muslims.