However, why do the cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo, who know that their drawings will be exploited by the media, by the retailers of anti-Islamophobia, by far-right Muslims and nationalists, insist on drawing Mohamed and other "sacred" symbols of Islam? Simply because the Charlie Hebdo drawings do not have the vast majority of Muslims as their target. We believe that Muslims are capable of recognising a tongue-in-cheek. By what twisted argument should Islam be less compatible with humour than other religions?
If you argue that you can laugh at everything, except certain aspects of Islam – because Muslims are much more sensitive than the rest of the population – aren't you practising a kind of discrimination? And if so, isn't it time to do away with the disgusting paternalism of the white, bourgeois, left-wing intellectuals who want to fit in with "the poor and the miserable and under-educated"?
They're educated, you see, and obviously understand that Charlie Hebdo is meant to be funny – because, for one thing, they're very intelligent and, for another, they were brought up that way. But out of respect for people who have not yet learned about tongues in cheeks, they condemn from a sense of solidarity these "Islamophobic" cartoons which they pretend not to understand. "I bring myself down to your level to show how much I love you," they say. "And if I have to convert to Islam to be even closer to you, I will do it!" Such ridiculous demagogues are driven by an endless need for approval and an outrageous superiority complex.
People who accuse Charlie Hebdo cartoonists of Islamophobia each time they draw a character with a beard are not just dishonest or hypocritical. They are supporting so-called radical Islam. If you draw an old man committing a paedophile act, you are not casting aspersions on all old men. You are not saying that all old men are paedophiles; or
that all paedophiles are old men. Apart from a few imbeciles, no one would accuse a Charlie Hebdo cartoonist of doing any such thing. The drawing shows an old paedophile. That's all.
The front page of the Charlie Hebdo edition devoted to the Danish cartoons is a magnificent illustration of this point. The drawing by Cabu shows a bearded man in a turban holding his head in his hands. He is either angry or he is crying. Perhaps both. The speech bubble says: "It's tough being loved by cretins." The headline above says: "Mohamed overwhelmed by fundamentalists."
Mohamed is complaining about the attitude of his fundamentalist followers. That's clear enough. And yet Charlie Hebdo was violently accused of calling all followers of the Prophet cretins. Charlie Hebdo drawings are not just misunderstood by the ignorant. They are re-drawn by very clever people who want to mutilate their meaning.