Hypocrisy galore

Joseph M. Cachia

22/01/2015

Opinión

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“There are three things in the world that deserve no mercy; hypocrisy, fraud, and tyranny.”

Frederick William Robertson

Honestly, I don’t know what made me write this! I was just going to give up. There were so many others, greater men and thinkers, who pleaded and warned men to think more and act less. But, sadly, man never learns, blinded by his hypocrisy and greed, starting by our so-called world leaders.

I have been for quite some time observant of the engineered cartoons by ‘Charlie Hebdo’ about which I had always harboured my disapproval. I have also been recollecting all I knew and lately researched on the background of the killings of members of the staff of ‘Charlie Hebdo’ in Paris by Islamic terrorists recently. This raised profound questions about the relations between Islam and secular Western culture, the role of free speech, hate speech, and the nature of blasphemy.

French President Francois Hollande, speaking at the scene of the shooting, called for "national unity" and said that an "act of exceptional barbarity has just been committed". On the same day, 2,000 Nigerians were massacred by Boko Haram! Hardly a sound, much less any demonstration. Of course, two ‘wrongs’ never made a ‘right’! But how could it have been different had a few, or even one European were among the victims! What a hypocritical world!

We are not all Charlie! Europe, which has now become a political entity, is not yet realising its responsibilities towards other dominions, including Islamic communities, although certainly much of European journalism is not ‘Charlie’. However, this mass self-exaltation of European leaders is dangerous because with it comes a blindness towards our own culpability. We must stop believing that wrongs aren't wrong if they’re done by nice people like ourselves.Those who participated, believing that they can advance freedom of expression, peace and solidarity are being used for opposite ends.I am saddened at the participation of French working people in these state-sponsored mobilizations.

France has a compensatory exception to its free speech laws. Anti-Semitic comedy can get you charged with a crime. Of particular relevance, is the perceived double standard when it comes to free speech. Certain kinds of statements about Jews can get you fired from Charlie Hebdo, or arrested. The controversial comedian, Dieudonné, has had shows banned after he was convicted of hate speech. On Sunday, after deriding the Sunday Paris march as "Legendary! Magical moment equal to the Big Bang that created the Universe!", which he posted on Facebook, he now faces a legal inquiry.

An excerpt from the autobiography of Mark Twain, paints the whole picture aptly.“Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people’s countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood of his hands and works for “the universal brotherhood of man”- with his mouth”.

Putting feelings above liberty is not a bad recipe for a healthy, open society after all! And here comes to mind a very sage and sound French maxim: ‘La liberté s'arrête où commence celle des autres’, loosely and simply translated would become ‘My liberty stops where yours begins’, which evidently the producers of ‘Charlie Hebdo’ forgot or conveniently ignored.

We were told that the world was horrified to learn of this attack. Of course, we all were! We do not condone the killings and strongly condemn them, as we likewise do the thousands of innocent deaths occurring all around us; Nigeria, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and so on. The list never stops but who is protesting?

Now, after the euphoria has died down, feelings are starting to get mixed (this should have taken place earlier and before the manifestations) and perhaps reason is winning over sentiment and people are getting back to their senses. The fact that sales of the ‘Charlie Hebdo’ first publication after this sad event have sky-rocketed clearly shows that many were those who had no earlier idea what all this was about. I bet that had it not been so, much lesser than half would have attended the manifestation.

Our (Maltese) Prime Minister should have been sensible enough to simply send his regrets and condolences and perhaps condemnation for this sorrowful incident. And stop there! But no, he immediately went trotting off to Paris to join the crowd. It does not seem that he got any sound and mature advice, if he had sought any after all. Or did he think that his going to Paris amounted to political correctness? Dear friend, photos do fade with time, you know! Honesty never does!

Are you a ‘Charlie’, Your Honour? Personally, I have never been a ‘Charlie Hebdo’, though I must say, that I am in solidarity with them in their sorrow at this sad moment. However, though I stood in united sympathy for all who lost their lives, I was not demonstrating,

Firstly, could his presence, in any way cause friction with any neighbourly Muslim country? I don’t know and I hope not, but your guess is as good as mine!

And secondly, how is it that he didn’t realise that that was surely not his place? France, England, the U.S. and their associates have no standing among human beings who seek justice, peace, civil and democratic rights and an end to imperialist wars across the globe. And is it true, as reported, that Hollande had asked Netanyahu not to attend the march in the first place, and then Netanyahu changed his mind and that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had stated that he could "hardly understand how he dared to go”.

The Maltese Prime Minister, being the head of a peaceful and generous country and surely much more clean-handed and definitely blameless of the crimes actually being committed by most of the hypocritical leaders tramping alongside, did not achieve any credit for his presence. Much more respect would have been gained had Malta stayed its course of a neutral peace-seeking country! I do not suppose that the Maltese government wants to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds! A plea to all our politicians: ‘Please, never underestimate the dangers – better safe than sorry’.

Now, innumerable clashes and uprisings are erupting all around us with various other confronting slogans to the one endorsed in Paris, namely; ‘I am Charlie’. We are witnessing slogans like; ‘I am not Charlie’, ‘Shame on Charlie Hebdo’. ‘I am not Charlie, I am Mohammed’. ‘If you are Charlie, then I am Kouachi’, referring to the brothers Cherif and Said. ‘We are all Cherif’ and ‘We are all Said’, they chanted.

Besides, Muslims, outraged by the French publications, have been ravaging Christian communities across Africa while violent mobs have burnt churches and Christian homes and businesses, leaving various people dead. May we be saved from this tragedy!

Beyond new threats — and the potential for more violence after a week in which both mosques and Jewish sites were attacked — the persistence of what many Muslims see as continuing provocations opened complaints about a double standard in European countries, whose bans on hate speech some see as seeming to stop short of forbidding ridicule of Islam. Moreover, it is argued that the failure of French courts to clamp down on cartoons satirizing Mohammad was a double standard, given the robustness of action taken when Jews were insulted by cartoonists or artists.

The further proliferation of the cartoons is heightening concern that the already precarious climate in Europe will worsen, with the possibility of more violence. People's sacred beliefs, though not sacred to others, when dragged into the public square do not constitute any right to grievously offend any people of any faith for mere sport, and dress it up as "free speech". It's just not that simple and crude.

Both sides of this battle have, apparently, become addicted to martyrdom. Not unlike the old Catholic saints, it seems that Islam is gaining more ‘martyrs’.

Something which I found rather unnerving was the British Prime Minister David Cameron’s defence of the right to speech that gives offence to others' religious beliefs, in a rebuttal to Pope Francis who said there should be limits.

If this is the kind of morality of our world leaders, I wouldn’t be surprised of the imminent world’s total collapse and ensuing chaos!