I have been more affected by the news of the terrorist attack that took place in Paris on Wednesday than I ever have from hearing about something like this. It happened on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir; the street that I lived on while I was getting accommodated my first 3 weeks in Paris. It’s eerie to think of a place I’m so familiar with, a place I felt safe enough to call home, and associate it with this terrible news. My heart weighs too heavy on this subject, for many reasons. 

The night of the attack, an estimated 10,000 people took to Place de la Republique in protest of the shooting; fighting for their right to free speech. Pencils were held in the air and the crowd fell silent. The internet went crazy. “Je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) and “Nous sommes tous Charlie” (We are all Charlie) were trending everywhere.

I hopped on board. These people died for their satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Their voices are now silenced forever, their free speech stripped from them by paying the ultimate price, their lives. 

But still, all this solidarity did not stop what I feared happening the most. Islamophopic backlash. Racists are always waiting for an excuse to be racist, and extremists are always ready to give them some. That is why it is so important that this is said:

“Whoever has killed an innocent soul, it is as if he has killed the whole of humanity.” Quran 5:32

The men who terrorized the Charlie Hebdo building on Wednesday were not Muslim. They are murderers who disguised themselves with religion. I refuse to associate them with Islam and I am appalled that they actually believe themselves to be. They are terrorists who did this in the name of death.

One of the victims, Ahmed Merabet, a police officer, was actually a Muslim man who died defending the magazine’s right to free speech, regardless of the publication’s inherent disregard for religious respect.

I cannot pretend to agree with what the magazine was printing. But they had the right to print it. Free speech is a basic human right. I do not identify with any religion, but I try to understand it, and respect it. Drawing satirical images of the Prophet Muhammed (or drawing him at all,) is extremely disrespectful to Islam. Still, Charlie Hebdo was a magazine known for pushing limits, and though they claim to not deliberately attempt to provoke, it is what they did. While I believe there is a certain line of respect that I don’t think should have been crossed; any image drawn of the Prophet Muhammad need not be recognized by the Muslim religion, Charlie Hebdo being no exception.

I am in no way blaming the victims for their death. It is horrible that they have died over a few drawings. I cannot stop my mind from coming back to this, reminding myself that this is the world that we live in. I just think that in the midst of everyone being so riled up about what happened, the publication itself has been wrongly glorified.

My heart goes out to the families of those who have died. 

“Je préfère mourir debout que vivre à genoux” –Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnier, Editor of Charlie Hebdo. (I prefer to die standing up than live on my knees)

(Photo taken at Palais de Tokyo, Paris.)