Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine, is apparently once again printing the objectionable cartoons that brought upon the savage attack by Islamic terrorists in 2015. And again my feelings are complicated.
I'm for free speech, but reasonable free speech - because words can wound. Five years ago, I had found myself conflicted and I remember thinking that each side had used the weapons it had found most handy and natural. One side had used words and images and mockery. And the other party had brought guns into the battle. In spite of the violence and the deaths, I do not know which attack was the more severe.
This time, I have a touch more sympathy for the publishers - not with the idea to demean religious sentiments but because they are making a brave point after a ghastly attack.
The most offensive of all intentions, to my mind, is the need to desecrate. Whether it is the destruction and defilement of thousands of temples and idols across North India, or the recent breaking down of the Buddha statue in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan, the building of a toilet on the remains of an Uyghur mosque in China or indeed the Hebdo cartoons - the intention to desecrate is most foul.
Sadly, it has been rampant throughout history. Always the victors have danced all too gleefully on the fragments of the oppressed. And the more the value attached to a monument, a structure or an idea, the more it has been broken down.
I am impressed with Charlie Hebdo for their gesture, but it is a disquieting keg of explosives to be sitting on.
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