Campaign news

Charlie Hebdo

14th January 2015

Charlie Hebdo

Statement by the EC of the LRC

The appalling brutal murders of staff working on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last week by extreme reactionary Islamists must be condemned unequivocally.  We send solidarity to all socialists and progressive thinkers in France and across the globe in support of the determination never to be intimidated from freely expressing criticism of institutions, religious or political. 

At the same time we recognise that the tiny and unrepresentative fraction of extreme Islamist zealots in no way speak for the millions of Muslims around the globe, any more than the neo-Nazi killer Anders Brevik spoke for the majority of Christians.  We denounce, too, the idea that Muslims represent a generalised threat, and represent a sinister “fifth column” in western societies (most recently parroted by Nigel Farage) as a crude piece of racist propaganda which would only serve to alienate further minority communities which are already feeling under attack. 

Not only did Muslims lose their lives in terror attacks such as 9/11 and 7/7, but we should remember that it is Muslims who are standing on the frontline of the fight, for example, against ISIS in Syria and Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan.  Far from being demonised and shunned, we should reach out to the vast majority of Muslims who reject this warped and distorted misrepresentation of their faith.  It is vital that Muslims and non-Muslims unite in fighting and combating the divisions intended to prevent people across the globe achieving social and economic justice.

Now more than ever it is necessary to defend unconditionally the revolutionary ideals of “liberty, equality and fraternity” against those forces working to crush such civil liberties and human rights, which must be upheld universally.  But radical Islamists are far from alone in attacking such principles.  We are sickened by the hypocritical stance taken by murderous western governments and their allies fresh from slaughtering millions of Muslims and those of other faiths alike in prosecuting wars against Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Mali.    We will not be seduced by the siren calls of “unity” with war criminals.

How has Benjamin Netanyahu the gall to speak of freedom and human rights, when the Palestinian people suffer from colossal injustice and oppression on a routine basis?  How can the leaders of Saudi Arabia talk about freedom of expression, when blogger Raif Badawi is to be have his flesh ripped apart by flogging every Friday for alleged “blasphemy” offences?  And how can the governments of western liberal “democracies” - the forces responsible for torture in Abu Ghraib, waterboarding, and extraordinary rendition- claim to speak for universal human rights? 

There is no way those who have demonstrated contempt for civil liberties and human rights in their so-called “war on terror”, and who now want to extend their ability to spy indiscriminately on our all our communications, can be trusted to defend our freedoms.  Our fight for a world where everyone can enjoy peace, security and human rights is necessarily a fight for a different kind of world, a socialist world.  We will not be intimidated in carrying on the fight for such a world, or manipulated into a false sense of unity with our class enemies.