THE MAGAZINE LEXPRESS DECIDES TO REPUBLISH CARICATURES OF THE PROPHET MAHOMET

USPA NEWS - The Epxress magazine decided to re-publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, in reaction to the very barbaric assassination (beheading) of history teacher Samuel Paty, who had shown caricatures to his students, to explain his course. of "freedom of expression". “Fourteen years after L'Express published caricatures of the Prophet, we decided to start over.
Every day, Samuel Paty did the most important thing in the Republic in the sanctuary of his classroom: to teach. That is to say, to show, to give, to offer to each child and to each adolescent the right to be "different from his difference" (1). Basically, that is becoming a citizen: understanding that, despite your origins, despite the political or ideological preferences of your parents, despite the customs of your culture or the prescriptions of your religion, you share other rules with your compatriots. , based on common values, chosen and established over the centuries, and which prevail over personal particularities. For having accomplished this essential task, for having done his job, Samuel Paty had his head beheaded.

This barbaric attack is a punishment - the professors would have violated the laws of Islam which the Islamists would like them to make law even in the schools - at the same time as a message of intimidation addressed to all the teachers of France: " This is what it can cost you if you do your job to the end. So give up. FEAR IS GAINING GROUND----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Make no mistake about it. Despite the union in emotion, despite the national outpouring of protest, intimidation is progressing. And the attack of October 16 will make it progress in the classrooms, as it blazed in the newsrooms after the attack of Charlie Hebdo. Fear is gaining ground. By the violence of the mental representation of terrorist acts. By the harassment of the daily prosecutors, who wage a continuous cultural war to make prevail their standards in the life of the city, intimidating all the Republicans and, among them, the secular French Muslims, constantly called to order, insulted and threatened. The Islamists, since they are the ones we are talking about, throw away names, divulge addresses and phone numbers, publish videos designating the prey to vindictiveness - like the one posted by Abdelhakim Sefrioui, member of the conference imams, who demanded that we punish Professor de Conflans. Fear increases because of those who turn away: these colleagues, these parents of students who have dissociated themselves. The fear is growing because of the cowardice of the administration and what seems to have become its unofficial slogan: "No wave."

IT'S OUR VALUES AND OUR MOORS THAT ISLAMISTS HATE-------------------------------------------------------------------- It is progressing, finally, because of the abdication of those who whisper "Do we really need to exercise this freedom to blaspheme?" They are truly shocked by the atrocity of the attacks, but think that France would be a safer country if we gave up showing or publishing the prophet's caricatures. We can live without it, of course. But we never abdicate such a vital freedom without seriously and lastingly weakening itself. Besides, the efficiency would be very mediocre: after the abandonment of blasphemy, they would demand the veil at school, then the "modesty" of women, then the ban on parties, music ... 'We would in no way escape attacks, because it is our values “‹“‹and our customs that they hate and that they fight. Responding to the criticism of one of his professors - who reproached him for his antagonized view of the world - the philosopher and resistance fighter Julien Freund chiseled these magnificent words: "Like all pacifists, you believe that it is you who designate the enemy. As long as we don't want enemies, we won't have any, you reason. Now it is the enemy who designates you. And you can make him the most beautiful protests of friendship. that he wants you to be his enemy, you are. And he will even prevent you from cultivating your garden. "(2)------------------------------------------------------------------------- The publication of blasphemous cartoons - whether they blaspheme Islam, Judaism or Christianity - is not a provocation or an offense. But the exercise of a freedom that we have given ourselves in France, the fruit of our unique history and our secular values. This is why, fourteen years after L'Express, under the direction of Denis Jeambar, published the Danish cartoons to resist the waves of hatred and intimidation they were unleashing here and elsewhere, we decided to publish again. The fear is there. Fear is everywhere. But we cannot let her prevail. "Source: The editorial staff of the Express Magazine