Over twenty years, fear has already devoured important pieces of Western culture and journalism. They all disappeared in a ghastly act of self-censorship: the cartoons of a Danish newspaper, a "South Park" episode, paintings in London's Tate Gallery, a book published by the Yale University Press; Mozart's Idomeneo, the Dutch film "Submission", the name and face of the US cartoonist Molly Norris, a book cover by Art Spiegelman and Sherry Jones's novel, "Jewel of Medina", to name just a few. Most of them have become ghosts living in hiding, hidden in some country house, or retired to private life, victims of an understandable but tragic self-censorship.
Only the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was missing from this sad, long list. Until now.
The disappointment with what Charlie Hebdo has become is reflected in the words of the French journalist, Marika Bret: "From Italy we receive many threats." The reference is not to some Italian jihadist cell, but to a September Charlie Hebdo cover that mocked victims of the earthquake in Italy. It seems that the satirical weekly, almost destroyed by French Islamists two years ago, has been "normalized".
Take Charlie's recent covers. Against terrorists? No. Against those who called them "racists"? No. It was against Éric Zemmour, the brave French journalist at Le Figaro who has led a public debate about French identity. "Islam is incompatible with secularism, incompatible with democracy, and incompatible with republican government," Zemmour wrote.
Laurent Sourisseau, aka "Riss," now the publishing director and majority owner of Charlie, was shot during the 2015 attack on the magazine, and lives under police protection. He depicted Zemmour on the cover with an explosive vest, effectively comparing him to a terrorist.
Charlie Hebdo also recently satirized Nadine Morano, a critic of Islam, depicting her as a baby with Down Syndrome.
Riss also recently published a comic book attacking another easy target of submissive conformists, entitled "The Dark Side of Marine Le Pen." Le Pen leads France's National Front party, with a platform fighting for national sovereignty and Europe's Judeo-Christian identity. In Charlie, the political leader of the French "right" is dressed as Marilyn Monroe.
For the first anniversary of the massacre at Charlie Hebdo's office, Riss released a cover not with Mohammed, but depicting a murderous Judeo-Christian God, as if Riss's colleagues had not been butchered by Islamists but by Catholics. Riss had, in fact, announced earlier that the magazine would "no longer draw Mohammed".
The first person at Charlie to capitulate was "Luz", a well-known cartoonist. He surrendered, saying: "I will no longer draw Muhammad".
 Charlie Hebdo, after Islamist terrorists murdered much of its staff in 2015, announced it would "no longer draw Mohammed." Instead, the magazine now focuses on attacking critics of Islamism, and mocking the Judeo-Christian God. |
"The transplant that works worst," said Jeannette Bougrab, the companion of Charlie's late editor Stéphane Charbonnier, "is the transplant of balls." Bougrab charged the attack's survivors with bowing to terrorism and threats by betraying the legacy of free speech for which these truthful men were murdered.
After the massacre of January 7, 2015, the cartoonist "Luz" cried in front of the cameras after presenting a cover depicting the survivors, in which Muhammad was portrayed as saying, "All is forgiven". Luz then appeared in Le Grand Journal along with Madonna, and in a gesture of sad voyeurism, displayed his genitals, covered by the logo "Je suis Charlie".
Charlie's "normalization" was also reflected in the recent dramatic decision to terminate the magazine's relationship with another survivor, the French-Tunisian intellectual and journalist Zineb el Rhazoui, who also now has to live under police protection for her criticism of Islamic extremists.
"The newspaper is no longer the same, Charlie is now under artistic and editorial suffocation," she told Le Monde. Rhazoui is the author of a new book, "Détruire le Fascisme Islamique" ("Destroying Islamic Fascism"). https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9425/charlie-hebdo-disappears