Yes, Paris atrocity was about religion

Let’s get one thing clear: if you offend Islamist extremists, they will set out to silence you. Kill you, if necessary.

Charlie Hebdo’s editor-in-chief has expressed dismay that people can attack a newspaper with heavy weapons. “A newspaper is not a weapon of war,” he said. But this is a war.

No one can doubt the deadly assault on the offices of the French satirical magazine by two gunmen is an attack on freedom of speech.

World leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, have condemned the killings as an atrocity. France is now plunged into a national day of mourning.

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets of Paris to mourn the slayings and to proclaim an undying commitment to the freedoms which go the heart of liberal democracy.

But the Charlie Hebdo murders pose a darker threat to the values which underpin all liberal democracies. There is more at risk here than the freedom to express oneself without fear.

Witnesses heard the gunmen shout in perfect French, “We have avenged the prophet”, and “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) as they carried out the attack.

The killers could not have been more unequivocal about their motive or their aim of avenging the honour of Islam. This was an atrocity carried out in the name of religion.

The staff of Charlie Hebdo weren’t executed because they exercised free speech. They were murdered because their killers believed they were infidels who had insulted Islam.

We find it shocking that people want to kill in the name of faith. Isn’t what you believe a private matter, between you and your God? In part, that is true.

But faith is also a public matter: it entails the freedom to attend worship, to wear clothing that expresses your faith, and to eat foods prepared in accordance with your religious traditions.

But most importantly, freedom of religion also protects your right NOT to believe. People should be free to stop attending your church or synagogue or mosque if they no longer want to practise their faith, or choose to follow no God.

Many Muslims – this does not mean every single Muslim – clearly refuse to tolerate any criticism or deviation from the tenets of Islam. The Qu’ran also mandates death for those who renounce Islam.

Sharia law declares that apostasy is a capital offence. Remember that we have seen signs being carried in central Sydney saying “Behead all those who insult the prophet.”

By persisting with the view that the Paris attack is primarily a senseless criminal attack on Western freedoms of thought and speech, our political leaders will miss its religious significance.

They must make a determined and concerted stand to defend freedom of speech. But they must also safeguard the principle of religious liberty – the freedom to believe, or not to believe.

And they must denounce the Islamist fanatics who are determined to hunt down and kill ‘the infidel’. The victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre deserve nothing less.

Peter Kurti is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies