The murderous assault on Wednesday in the heart of the French capital is nothing less than an attack on Islam. Whatever the two attackers thought they were achieving by gunning down two policemen and ten journalists at the magazine Charlie Hebdo, their victims actually also include the five million Muslims who live in France, the largest such community in Europe. Moreover, in a few short hours since it was perpetrated, this brutish act has garnered massive support for the scurrilous magazine. Other journalists and cartoonists have offered their services for free and vowed that next week's edition will come out as normal. Social media users worldwide have begun sharing the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie. It is likely that the print-run will be hugely increased. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are likely to buy the edition and sign up to receive it regularly. Thus this odious crime has already significantly boosted the magazine's circulation from a paltry 45,000.
Many Muslims and indeed non-Muslims have been outraged at Charlie Hebdo's anti-Islamic outpourings. It has made the pain no less to point out that the magazine has been every bit as irreverent toward Christians and Jews. Nevertheless, a far greater outrage in now being felt by French Muslims at Wednesday's depraved attempt to exact revenge.
Leading members of France's Muslim community have roundly condemned what one described as “the wicked hijacking of Islam” to justify a terrible crime. There can be no doubting the sincerity with which these community leaders have joined in the shocked and appalled response, both in their own country and from around the world.
Yet is has to be almost certain that their words will be drowned out and forgotten as the racist bigots of the Front National capitalize on the Charlie Hebdo massacre. The irony is that in its anarchic fashion, the left-wing magazine has never been a friend of the neo-Nazis and has often attacked them savagely. But this is most unlikely to deter the National Front from exploiting the tragedy.
The initial of response of Marine Le Pen, the leader of the neo-fascist party, was appropriately measured and full of surprise and regret. But Wednesday's hail of Kalashnikov bullets has also blasted away another invisible barrier that kept Le Pen and her party from going the extra mile in their campaign against immigrants in general and Muslim immigrants in particular. The fact that the two suspects, whose family comes from Algeria, were raised in France and are naturalized Frenchmen will enable the National Front to extend its corrosive race hate even toward Muslim communities that have been established in the country for generations.
Much now depends on the considered response of the administration of President Francois Hollande. His ministers have been warning of the danger of terror attacks from returnees among the estimated 1,000 French people who have gone to fight with the so-called Islamic State. One such individual has been charged with three killings in a Brussels Jewish museum last May.
It is right that moves are made to protect the French state from further outrages. But that protection has to include France's Muslims. They cannot be singled out by Islamophobic bigots as being responsible for this terrible crime. Instead they should be seen as the other victims of this insane act.
