Fear and the freedom to care: France's delicate balance - Arab News

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Fear and the freedom to care: France’s delicate balance

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A city view shows the French flag above the skyline of the capital as the Eiffel Tower and roof tops are seen in Paris, France, Mar. 30, 2016. (Reuters)

My regional flight had landed in Istanbul just a few hours earlier, and what I thought would be an uneventful early January night at an airport hotel in 2015 turned out to be a nonstop news stream from Paris. Footage showing some car in a narrow street in the French capital was replayed ad nauseam. News bulletins were scrambling to report what was happening around the offices of a satirical magazine I had not heard of. Tension was high; fear and shock were palpable. Never had French news reporting seemed so incoherent. A terrorist attack was ongoing. Charlie Hebdo quickly became a loaded term in Europe, embodying an unmitigated clash of values. But that was just the beginning.
Fast forward to autumn 2020 and a new level of terrifying news emerged from Paris: The beheading of a schoolteacher on his way out of work. I tuned in to the France Culture channel for some local reporting. “Detruire notre liberte” (destroying our liberty) said the live stream. This was a predictable combination of words and receiving them at the outset was little surprise. Returning to the abundance of arguments on individual freedoms, which got heated in the wake of the numerous attacks around Paris in January 2015, and the invocation of the Bataclan alongside Charlie Hebdo are hardly edifying anymore. But, on this occasion, there was more at stake. In France, education is a red line.
The teacher in question was reportedly targeted because he had shown the controversial cartoons. The class in question was civics and the topic was the limits of free speech. The teacher, praised by colleagues and pupils for his competence and care, had a teaching plan and had communicated it to students. According to other teachers, addressing controversial materials such as satirical cartoons is common practice in French classroom discussions on the freedom of speech. In a different world, namely a university classroom in the US, I encouraged students in sessions on music and censorship to find songs from their own world that were subjected to restriction. While initially some were outraged by the thought of censorship in a country where many individual freedoms are constitutionally protected, the students had no shortage of examples. The exercise was eye-opening, to say the least. It demonstrated how society practices censorship in myriad ways. In another example from the US, a colleague who taught a class on civic law told me it was a very stressful experience, and it took a toll on the professor’s popularity among students.
Stirring up emotions when discussing the exercise of freedoms, especially the freedom of expression, is not unusual. The slain French teacher was all too aware of this peril; it was widely reported that he warned students about the cartoons, telling them they could leave the classroom if the images might offend. But little did he know. What in his mind was an act of sensitivity to contradicting views would fail to spare his life.
In the debates that followed the 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo staff, I found one notion particularly perplexing: The freedom to offend, which, I must say, was new to me. For someone who spent their formative years in a diverse part of the Middle East, the right to offend contains an inherent contradiction. If behaving sensitively to values that others hold dear is a moral value in its own right, then offending is definitely not a socially constructive choice. In other words, in diverse societies, people take care of each other; avoiding intentional offending is a no-brainer — but that, too, is a choice.
Thinkers have been debating the meaning of free will for ages, and in great nuance. Philosophers, religious scholars and scientists are still trying to work out how free we really are as individual human beings. Recent research suggests that, alongside our upbringing, our genetic makeup also influences our belief systems.

For someone who spent their formative years in a diverse part of the Middle East, the right to offend contains an inherent contradiction.

Tala Jarjour

While the existence of mass-disseminated publications that offend may be the result of believing in the freedom to do so, teaching about them is not. If anything, dissecting the complexities of freedom and choice within educational debate helps students appreciate the power of their freedom to choose, which equips them for making socially responsible decisions. This awareness is especially important when disagreements cut wide and deep.
Back in 2015, I packed up and headed to Ataturk Airport in the small hours of Jan. 8. As I lugged my large suitcase to the check-in desk, the TV was still on. My transatlantic flight included a stopover in Paris and I needed to know whether airports were still open, especially to flights and travelers from the Middle East. There were no major disruptions, save for tighter security checks — something I had got used to when boarding US-bound flights in Paris since the early 2000s. But this time I had no complaints. The country was visibly in shock, even in the transit zone of its largest international airport.
Perhaps I should buy something in print with today’s date on it, I thought. A particular option came to mind. “Charlie Hebdo no longer is,” said the newspaper seller, looking me in the eye but staring into the void. Fear had hit home, and deep, his eyes seemed to say. “Ca n’existe plus,” were his exact words, which my mind heard as: “On what planet are you living, insensitive visitor?” I subsequently learned that the magazine prints flew off the shelves while I was glued to a news screen.
The magazine eventually returned to circulation and, with it, seemingly unending controversies. But the memory of that moment in Paris-Charles De Gaulle leaves me wondering today: What other things have ceased to exist in the souls of teachers and parents from all religious creeds and cultural backgrounds in France? How will Muslim parents and children — also teachers — deal with the repercussions of such troubling events as they try to lead normal lives in Europe? As this piece goes to print, France is fully embroiled in debating new laws that will, at best, restrict civil freedoms and, at worst, further isolate specific slices of its population. Reading the news and following the media, I wish that I, and many people, could have a chance to look into each other’s eyes more often.

• Tala Jarjour is author of “Sense and Sadness: Syriac Chant in Aleppo.” She is Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London, and Associate Fellow of Yale College.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point-of-view

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