What happened last week at Charlie Hebdo is wrong and sad. Also, the way they expressed their views towards Prophet Mohamed is also wrong and sad. To be clear, what triggered the tragedy was not only Charlie Hebdo's depictions of the Prophet. In fact, it was the disrespectful depictions of the Prophet. For Muslims, it is the corner stone of faith not only to respect Mohamed but also all Muslim prophets of God such as Jesus, Moses, Abraham, and others.
I agree with David Brooks as he wrote "I Am Not Charlie Hebdo" (New York Times, January 8, 2015) stating that
"If they had tried to publish their satirical newspaper on any American university campus over the last two decades it wouldn’t have lasted 30 seconds. Student and faculty groups would have accused them of hate speech. The administration would have cut financing and shut them down."
Dialogue is the way to make both freedom of expression and freedom of religion work side by side and many European societies need to have this dialogue. The American experience offers a good starting point to distinguish between free speech and hate speech and, eventually, to make different values coexist in the society. I said starting point because there is a long way to go even in America. It is very interesing, for example, how some news providers like FOX News, misquote a speech of the Egyptian President Sisi. Calling for a religious revolution, he made it clear his talk is about the ideology (fikr) that has been falsely attached to the religion (deen). He did not call for reforming the "religion" or providing a modern interpretation of the Qur'an as being reported.
Today's issue of Charlie Hebdo, the first since the tragedy, have the Prophet on the cover holding a sign reading " I am Charlie" in the French language. This a far different tone than what it had in the past. However, it did not show any respect to the faith of one of the victims; Ahmed Merabet, the Muslim Police Officer, let alone, the 1.5 billion Muslim around the world. (see: Egypt Muslim authority slams new Charlie Hebdo Mohammed cartoon)
Let me conclude by offering my profound condolences to the families and friends of the victims of this tragedy.
