Open Letter: On Blasphemy, Islamophobia, and the True Enemies of Free Expression

by Charb, Adam Gopnik (Foreword by)

Overview

An impassioned defense of the freedom of speech, from Stéphane Charbonnier, a journalist murdered for his convictions.

On January 7, 2015, two gunmen stormed the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. They took the lives of twelve men and women, but they called for one man by name: "Charb."

Known by his pen name, Stèphane Charbonnier was editor in chief of Charlie Hebdo, an outspoken critic of religious fundamentalism, and a renowned political cartoonist in his own right. In the past, he had received death threats and had even earned a place on Al Qaeda's Most Wanted List. On January 7 it seemed that Charb's enemies had finally succeeded in silencing him. But in a twist of fate befitting Charb's defiant nature, it was soon revealed that he had finished a book just two days before his murder on the very issues at the heart of the attacks: blasphemy, Islamophobia, and the necessary courage of satirists.

Here, published for the first time in English, is Charb's final work. A searing criticism of hypocrisy and racism, and a rousing, eloquent defense of free speech, Open Letter shows Charb's words to be as powerful and provocative as his art. This is an essential book about race, religion, the voice of ethnic minorities and majorities in a pluralistic society, and above all, the right to free expression and the surprising challenges being leveled at it in our fraught and dangerous time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316311335
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	01/05/2016
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	4.80(w) x 7.10(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Charb (Stéphane Charbonnier) (1967-2015) was a French journalist, political cartoonist, and satirist. Born and raised outside of Paris, Charb honed his drawing skills as a teenager and contributed illustrations to his college newspaper and local publications. He joined the staff of Charlie Hebdo in 1992 and held the position of editor in chief from 2009 until his death in 2015. An atheist, pacifist, and staunch advocate of free speech, Charb was known for cartoons that mocked political figures and organized religion.

Table of Contents

Foreword Adam Gopnik vii

Note from the publisher xiv

Islamophobia is the new racism 3

Faith is submission 11

To believe is, above all, to fear

Being afraid is a right

All currents of thought may be criticized

God is big enough to take care of himself

Elitism, condescension, and infantilization 20

Journalists promoting Islamophobia

The Muhammad Cartoons

Politics promoting Islamophobia

An elite who infantilizes Muslims in the name of the struggle against Islamophobia

Heroes in the struggle against Charlie Hebdo's so-called Islamophobia 34

Lawsuits and the clowns who file them

Organizations misdirecting their indignation

Top billing

Freedom of expression and the butterfly effect 48

Respect raised to the level of first principle

Caution and cowardice promoting Islamophobia

Toward the definition of a promising concept 60

Jealous Catholics

What about Judeophobia?

There's no such thing as anti-republican blasphemy!

And what about atheophobia in all this? 79

Editorial Reviews

01/25/2016
Before Islamic militants murdered 12 staff members of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, many Americans had never heard of the satirical publication. The text of this provocative book-length essay by Stéphane Charbonnier, the former editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo, who went by the pen name "Charb," was finalized only two days before his assassination. The very existence of this slim book will be considered inflammatory or scandalous by some, but those who read it will find that Charb lays out his antireligious opinions in a clear and concise manner. One of Charb's primary goals in the essay is to distinguish racism from Islamophobia. Why is there no corresponding extremist violence in retaliation for "Judeophobia" or "Cathophobia," since Charlie Hebdo also mocks Catholic and Jewish ideas? Charb asserts that, in a secular republic, ideas must be scrutinized, and that religions are sets of ideas rather than people. Moreover, nonbelievers are incapable of committing blasphemy. Adam Gopnik's foreword provides an overview of Charlie Hebdo and some historical context for American readers. Gopnik concludes that "Faith is not the enemy. Fanaticism is the enemy." Charb pulls no punches and makes no apologies. He makes a bold case for the necessity of free expression, even in the face of real threats and death itself. Agent: Les Echappés. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"As the first anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo massacre approaches—fresh off the recent attacks in Paris, new cries of Islamophobia and new debates over Muslim immigration —Charb's final words will have to stand in for him. They do so, ably."—Michael Cavna, Washington Post

From the Publisher

2015-11-18
The late Charlie Hebdo editor, murdered two days after completing this book, speaks about self-censorship, oppression, and religious zealotry. France has no direct equivalent of the First Amendment, and so a satirical publication such as Charlie is subject to attack on all sides, official and otherwise. Catholic clerics blustered against the magazine as much as any imam did, while the ruling government, which treats France like "a salami that the Socialist Party has the annoying tendency of slicing up into special-interest groups," was never quick to defend Charlie's right to be a gadfly. So writes "Charb" Charbonnier, who is quick to assert his atheism and leftism and to stick it to whatever deity one wishes to propose: to be a believer, he insists, is "above all, to fear," while a God with the powers ascribed to him "is big enough to take care of himself" and does not require the interventions of mullahs or bishops. Charb's nose-tweaking sometimes drifts into the juvenile, obscuring his more serious message: namely, that people who hate Islam really hate Muslims. As a thought experiment, he invites us to consider who would lose his job first, a European convert to Islam or an Arab immigrant—and that bigotry is bigotry no matter whom it is directed against. Professing irritated amusement with the spectacle of death threats being issued against cartoonists, Charb takes on "God's wingnuts," a vision of a supreme being as someone who is "mean as fuck and dumb as a plank," and "a few purportedly Muslim wackos" with gleeful abandon, even as he acknowledges—and as events proved—how dangerous his stance is. The logic is sometimes wobbly: to criticize Charlie is not necessarily to side with radical Islam any more than criticizing America, contra Bush, meant siding with al-Qaida. And, being so brief, the book is cursory, sometimes too much so. Nevertheless, this is a welcome and necessary essay in provocation—a lively, readable hornet-stirring in defense of free expression.

Kirkus Reviews