Back to where we started | היום

Back to where we started

The Charlie Hebdo editorial staff, or, more precisely, what is left of it, completed on Monday night the historic edition of the magazine that hit newsstands on Wednesday. Due to the loss of 10 staff members in last week's attack, the latest edition of the magazine is eight pages, instead of the normal 16. Yet 3 million copies have been printed, instead of the normal 60,000. The triumphal cover features the Prophet Muhammad, with a tear in his eye, holding a sign that says, "I am Charlie." Before the edition was even published in France, voices of resentment were already being heard from the Muslim world. So just a week after the killings, we are back to where we started: Charlie Hebdo is teasing and Muslims are angry.

In France today, almost everyone says, "I am Charlie," so it is likely that all 3 million editions will be sold, to be kept as souvenirs for the grandchildren. Participants in last Sunday's mass rally will tell their yet unborn relatives about how the French people bravely fought for freedom of expression, brotherhood, democracy, and the values of the republic, while also combatting terrorism, by carrying signs through the streets of Paris.

The big question now, of course, is what next? After the shock, the mourning and the unity, is there really something new under the Eiffel Tower?

It appears that the first post-massacre edition of Charlie Hebdo has aroused anger and hatred. So this historic edition, which the remaining Charlie Hebdo staff worked on the office space provided by the Liberation newspaper, has brought us back to the reality in which it is fine to draw cartoons about Jesus, but Muhammad is off-limits.

Dar al-Ifta, Egypt's state-sponsored Islamic authority, warned on Tuesday that the cover of the new Charlie Hebdo edition was "unjustifiably provocative to the feelings of a billion and a half Muslims worldwide." And French Muslim officials said that while they oppose terrorism, they love Muhammad. In other words, Muslim sensitivity regarding Muhammad has not disappeared and the problem of integrating Muslims (even moderate ones) into secular French society still exists, even after the trauma of the past week.

Both France and its Muslim population are caught in a trap. Just as France cannot give up freedom of expression, French Muslims cannot accept cartoons about Muhammad. The low-level delegations sent by Morocco, Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to Sunday's rally made this clear to France.

So today in France, everyone is Charlie -- except for a significant percentage of Muslims and all of the extreme Right. Does anyone still think it is wrong to remind French Jews about the option of aliyah-

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