Daily Times

Charlie Hebdo, a French newspaper that normally printed about 60,000 copies has sold millions of its ‘survivor’s issue’ after the attack on its offices that killed 10 journalists and three others. Under ordinary circumstances this would be considered a success, if one ignores the deaths and continued threats to the lives of the remaining staff. Charlie Hebdo is a publication in the anarchist tradition that believes that nothing is sacred. They laugh at everything and respect nothing, including themselves. Their offensive, vulgar and crass cartoons had not gained them the support they needed to survive financially or socially. It was the massive focus on them by the Muslim world after they repeatedly and unapologetically printed caricatures of the Prophet (PBUH) that led to their current financial success and popularity. One cannot make the argument that Charlie Hebdo is a responsible, respectful or even socially conscious publication that values journalistic veracity. In fact the sub-caption of the survivor’s issue reads: “Journal Irresponsable.”

When Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour of the Awami National Party (ANP) stood up in Pakistan’s National Assembly on Monday and offered head money of $ 200,000 for the owner of Charlie Hebdo and to financially support further terrorist attacks in France after having previously announced that he would reward the heirs of the militants who attacked the Charlie Hebdo offices and a kosher supermarket in Paris in January, no one either endorsed or opposed him. In fact, neither his party, well known for its non-religious character, nor any treasury member spoke out against Bilour’s inappropriate ‘offers’. This silence does not merely send a message to the world that Pakistan, as a matter of national policy, will not tolerate attacks on Islam and the Prophet (PBUH), it also sends the message that we both condone and will assist terrorist attacks on blasphemers, alleged or actual. People like Bilour must be discouraged from following in the footsteps of the mullahs well known for such gestures, including the head money announced for the murder of Governor Salmaan Taseer when he came out in support of a poor Christian woman falsely accused of blasphemy but who, in line with the fate of any unfortunate person in Pakistan accused of blasphemy, rightly or wrongly, has been sentenced to death and her appeal rejected by the Lahore High Court in a clear travesty of justice. And it may not be amiss to remind everyone that instigation to murder or terrorism, let alone offering material incentives for such acts is an offence in Pakistan. Will the law come into motion against the errant MNA? Will his party, the ANP, have the moral courage to come out publicly against his unacceptable actions? *