Je suis Charlie

As the horrific news out of Paris continues to unfold, I want to go on public record as clearly as I can.  I shouldn’t really have to do so, but at least a few out there seem to want to believe that I never acknowledge the evils done in the name of Islam.  So, once again, I acknowledge and denounce them:

I condemn, as strongly as I can, the terrorist executions carried out at the editorial offices of Charlie Hebdo.  I pray for the families and friends of those who were murdered, and for the swift apprehension and severe punishment of the thugs responsible.  I denounce such actions.  This was an assault not only on people and on a magazine, but on intellectual freedom and human liberty in general.  It was a brutal offense against the cultural heritage of the West, which is predicated on freedom to think and to speak.

It will, no doubt, have the desired chilling effect, which is deeply regrettable.  But it certainly won’t improve the image of Islam.  Satirical cartoons against terrorism, even satirical cartoons showing disrespect for the Prophet Muhammad, will never — can never — do one percent of the damage to the reputation and general credibility of Islam and Muslims that such a crime as this does.

The world must take every legal and moral measure available to put an end to Islamist violence.  And I emphatically include the world’s Muslim population in that call.  For the sake of their own religion, they must rise up and stop it.  It must be rooted from their midst.

These extreme Islamists believe in, and seek to foster, a war between the Dar al-Islam and the Dar al-Harb, between the “Abode of Islam” and the “Abode of War.”  Unfortunately, such events as this Paris massacre make such a war ever more likely.  They inflame the passions of those in the West who would, in various ways, reciprocate.  But this must not happen.  Good people on both sides of the divide must see to it that war is avoided, must ensure that more bridges are built across the divide and that those already in place aren’t destroyed.

That said, good people in the West — believers and unbelievers alike — are clearly already at war with the Islamist murderers who have declared it.  And so must good Muslims be at war with them.  Everywhere.