Few British Muslims had heard of Charlie Hebdo before last Wednesday.
Of those who had, almost none would be fans of the magazine. Personally, I found some of its cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) moderately amusing ("100 lashes if you don't die of laughter") and others just deplorable bad taste. Even if it had been published in English and sold locally, I would not have bought it.
The attack came as a bolt from the blue. Knowing Charlie Hebdo's history, my immediate expectation was that the killers were Muslims, and this was sadly confirmed. Twitter was flooded with condemnations by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
On Thursday, Dr Shuja Shafi, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain said: "Nothing is more immoral, offensive and insulting against our beloved Prophet than such a callous act of murder. " Sadly, there are some extremist Muslims who have sought to justify the killings, but they are a tiny minority and do not deserve the oxygen of publicity.
Some would like the law to prohibit blasphemous publications, which English law did until the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 abolished the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel, and also dropped references to blasphemous libel in the Criminal Libel Act 1819 and the Law of Libel Amendment Act 1888.
But the law of blasphemy in England had never protected Islam as in the case R v Chief Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate; Ex parte Choudhury (1991) the Divisional Court decided, in the words of Lord Watkins, "We have no doubt that as the law now stands it does not extend to religions other than Christianity ..."
Accordingly, its abolition has made no practical difference to UK Muslims.
God does not need me to protect him and blasphemy laws always create problems as we regularly see in Pakistan. Accordingly, I fully support Charlie Hebdo's freedom to publish material even when I find it deplorable.
British Muslims were also shocked by the killings at the kosher supermarket on Friday. While British Muslims hold a range of views on how the Israel Palestine dispute should be resolved, most are supportive of the Palestinian cause. But I have never anyone, no matter how much they oppose Israel, who believes that the conduct of Israel justifies killing innocent Jewish civilians in Britain or France. Accordingly, I was very pleased to see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas join the solidarity march in Paris on Sunday.
Sadly, the recording history of the CST shows that every time there is an event such as Operation Cast Lead, anti-Semitic attacks in the UK rise. Tell MAMA has seen the same pattern, with a significant rise after the murder of Lee Rigby in Woolwich. France has already seen mosques being firebombed, and sadly I fear an increase of anti-Muslim attacks in the UK. That would of course please the terrorists, who preach permanent conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims.
There is also hope. French Muslims who have kept a low profile historically came out on Sunday to march with Jews and Christians with the message which I saw on a placard "I am a French Muslim and I am against terrorism". The attacks may strengthen inter-faith relations in France and in the UK.
