Can societal polarization caused by terrorism endanger European integration?
The Charlie Hebdo massacre is not only about freedom of speech – it may have the potential to severely challenge the European project. Wednesday, January 7th, masked gunmen attack the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris and kill 12 people. Shortly before leaving the scene, the perpetrators shout, “Allahu Akbar” and “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad”. First and foremost, news coverage related Charlie Hebdo to the defence of freedom of speech as one of the most integral characteristics defining European democratic identity; a valid and important claim. However, what gets left out in most articles, is to what extent the Charlie Hebdo case will foster an ever-growing support for radical right-wing parties across Europe, which conceivably has the potential to challenge the idea of European integration. On twitter and Facebook, individuals’ comments are characterised by hatred towards religion as a whole, towards Islam specifically, and towards immigrants of all forms. A person commenting underneath an article by Süddeutsche Zeitung calls for the “annihilation of all Muslim riffraff”. Someone else pursues by arguing that the Charlie Hebdo case represents the final proof that “Muslim culture is still stuck in the Middle ages”. The murder of twelve people by religiously motivated perpetrators has hit Europe in its heart, sadly permitting the voice of racism to be heard. It is problematic that many people forget the motivation behind comparable terrorist acts. In several interviews across many media outlets, “experts” argued that the form of violence adopted in the Charlie Hebdo case was unique and new. People speak of a “novel strategy of violence adopted by Muslim fundamentalists to spread fear”. It is not new and it is not an irrational strategy implemented by a bunch of fundamentalist lunatics. Vengeance for satirical cartoons only represents the primary motivation on surface. What remains ignored to a great extent is the pursuing of a calculated strategy of polarization with goal to gather more recruits by causing social fragmentation. Already within the first night after the massacre, assaults on Muslim communities and Mosques across France have been reported. It is the very goal of terrorists to instigate a steep increase of xenophobia among populations in Europe to isolate Muslim communities even more, which makes them a much easier target for recruitment. With a resurgence of radical right wing parties across Europe in the last two decades caused by widespread societal uncertainty, cases like Charlie Hebdo have the potential to mark the next tipping point in the triumphal march of the extreme right. Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s radical Front National already insisted on restoring capital punishment for terrorist acts. Hence, European societies have a choice to make: we have to decide to what extent we will be susceptible for a recurrence of xenophobic politics, which may well equate to the failure of the European project. Now is the time in which a young European generation will be able to prove that we have split with the Fascist past of the Continent. Charlie Hebdo is a tragedy but at the same time it represents the greatest opportunity in years for us to show that we live in a time less and less defined by black and white thinking and stereotypes, that we have the ability to leave our dark past behind.
