Erstellt am: 16. 1. 2015 - 18:04 Uhr

Charlie Hebdo: A Many-Layered Story

Je suis vs Je ne suis pas, freedom of expression vs hate speech, religion and responsibility, government responsibility, the far-reaching tentacles of war, the definition of satire, radicalization, integration, an impasse of deadly human frustration etc. etc. etc.

APA

A delegate takes images of signs reading 'Je Suis Charlie' standing on parliamentarians' desks at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, 13 January 2015

Since last Wednesday, it's been all the regular-world madness and chaos and face-palming evidence of human brutality and ultimately self-destructive stupidity. On top of the regular horror, along came Charlie Hebdo as it exploded during a brazen outburst of Kalashnikov, and rocket-propelled grenade launcher destruction. The splatter of what was left behind has dominated headlines and threads of debate across the web and the world.

APA

People read the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo survivors' issue, on the central train station of Rotterdam in The Netherlands, 16 January 2015

Looking over my shoulder

The blood in my face gets drained on a regular basis when I'm working on stories for Reality Check. Last Wednesday, mine was not the only drained face as a weird quiet muffled our open-plan office and the details of the unfolding story started trickling in.

I really don't feel shame for it because I think it's a perfectly natural reaction - one of the first thoughts to race through my mind was a mental fast-flowing rewind of all the things any of us here at FM4 have ever said in any public capacity that was offensive. My heart started racing. I kept looking over my right shoulder at the main door to our offices. That door has super-easy access for anyone who has ever been offended and has lost the human plot.

DON'T get scared, DO something positive. Make a stand.

That's what I concentrated on to make the fear go away.

Aside from an entire life guided by principles that are all about inclusion, respect, kindness, having a sense of fucking humour, not thinking I'm the end-all, be-all of what is right and what is wrong, I decided to change my Facebook profile picture (which I really only ever extremely rarely do - 1960's Sophia Loren has represented me admirably over the years) to the Je Suis Charlie sign.

I've been to the 'make-a-FB-statement-profile-pixie' rodeo before. Kony 2012 taught a good lesson. I banked on a backlash or a wave of criticism but I was compelled to make my little statement anyways and to have the integrity to do so until the Paris dead were buried.
The Je suis/Je ne suis pas debate continues to feed the file labelled in my brain as "Work in Progress" as do the questions I have about the definition of the words 'freedom', 'blasphemy', and 'racism'.

APA

Protesters rally against Cumhuriyet Newspaper, during a protest in front of Istanbul Courthouse Headquarter, in Istanbul, Turkey, 15th January 2015. On early 14th January, Turkish Police raided the printing house of Cumhuriyet newspaper which published a four-page of selection of Charlie Hebdo's new issue in solidarity with the French magazine.

The Charlie Hebdo story is so multi-layered - tucked between The Big Issues layers, are the stories of three young men who shared the same faith but not the same convictions. Lassana Bathily is a young Muslim employee at the Paris Kosher grocery store Hyper Cacher who saved several people by hiding them in a walk-in freezer during the siege on his workplace on Friday. The Kouachi brothers also made claims to be followers of Islam. The paths these three men's lives have taken, separately and the ultimately permanently interwoven, are telling and poignant.

Charlie Hebdo's impact will continue to resonate and the story will continue to grow. Will it harvest the recognition that we are all in this together here on planet Earth?

I doubt it. I changed my FB profile picture back to Sophia Loren today. In my status post I wrote: Je suis everyone and everything except the assholes and the human ignorance stuff.

Reality Check Special

Since the Paris attacks last week, many issues pertaining to the brutal murders of 17 people, have been at the forefront of world headlines and the content of many a hot debate online and off. Freedom of speech vs hate speech, Je suis Charlie vs Je ne suis pas Charlie, can a faith be held responsible for the actions of a few interpreters of that faith? etc.

Hal Rock will explore some of these issues this Saturday as of 12 midday on FM4's Reality Check Special "Charlie Hebdo: A Multi-Layered Story". You can listen to the programme after the show via Podcast or on fm4.orf.at/7days.