Charlie Hebdo: Freedom of speech and mutual respect

by | Feb 6, 2015 | Other News

The recent assassinations of French citizens were horrendous acts of barbarity. In addition, they also were violent attacks on our concept of civil liberties. Most of us love our freedom of speech, lots of it and for very good reasons. And many of us enjoy social satire. I certainly do and have been teaching a course on the 500 year old history of German satire at ODU for many years.

But recent events and comments made me also reconsider our beloved postmodern maxims of “Having Fun” and “Anything Goes.” Although I have been a solidly lapsed Catholic for most of my life, I am afraid Pope Francis makes a good point with his statement on his recent trip to the Philippines, that it is “wrong to insult religion.” Even in our highly secular Western World, there are millions of Christians, Muslims, Jews and followers of other spiritual beliefs, for whom their religion is a source of solace, inspiration and cultural identity. And the greatest majority of them are—no surprise there—decent, law-abiding and hardworking citizens.

Which brings me to the issue of cultural censorship. To this day, present-day Germany makes it a crime to display the swastika or publish Mein Kampf not only in an attempt to prevent the possible resurgence of fascism’s antagonistic world view, but also out of respect for all those who have been murdered under its icon and ideology because of their religious tradition, sexual orientation or political conviction.

Maybe, if we are a bit less irreverent of each other’s cultures and different opinions and orientations, the ominous “Clash of Civilizations,” which Samuel Huntington had predicted at the end of the last century, will not continue to be as brutal as it has been time and again since September 11, 2001.

(How we can fine-tune the important difference between legitimate satire and provocative insult, that will be one of our increasingly global and multicultural challenges).

by Dr. Frederick A. Lubich
Professor of German, Old Dominion University

—Frederick A. Lubich, Ph.D., Professor of German, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Old Dominion University

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by Dr. Frederick A. Lubich
Professor of German, Old Dominion University