The masked gunmen who claimed to have “killed Charlie Hebdo” would be surprised to learn they helped reverse the fortunes of a struggling low-budget paper with a circulation of less than 60,000.  Now the surviving editorial team has had to print five million copies – which may not be enough for readers mortified by a tale of how artists and journalists – and the police hired to protect them – were murdered by men claiming to act in the name of the Prophet.

If Charlie Hebdo had avoided the topic this time round they would have been accused of – and forgiven for – giving in to terrorists.  Its answer as ever, is a mixture of humour and defiance.  Staring out from the front page is the sad face of the Prophet. A single tear streaks down Mohamed’s bearded cheek, below the headline, “All is forgiven.”  (Confusingly, the editor said in an interview that it does not mean they forgive the killers.)

But the satirical weekly has proven its metal and must move on. More Mohamed cartoons are unlikely to edify when there are plenty of other people to caricature, and injustices to address.  Not least to France’s five million Muslims, many of whom suffer from discrimination, are under-represented in the country’s job market and over-represented in its jails.

Their religion is invoked among conservatives fearing an “Islamization” of the country.  Polemicist Eric Zemmour blames the slow death of France in part on immigration and says Muslims stick to themselves in outlying ghettoes (perhaps forgetting the cost of living keeps many outside of the Parisian perimeter).

Novelist Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel, “Submission,” imagines a France run by an Islamist state in 2022.

One would forgive French Muslims for feeling put upon, particularly when even their most strident condemnation of extremists leave cynics, xenophobes and the mentally addled unconvinced.

Hysteria with a Purpose
News Corporation executive Rupert Murdoch said Muslims must “recognize and destroy their growing jihadist cancer,” repeating the mantra of those uninterested in drawing distinctions between moderate and radical, normal and psychopath.

Muslims have no more reason to denounce crazed killers than Christians do whenever bible-thumping fundamentalists pick up an AK-47.  Nor did we call on them to seek collective forgiveness for Anders Breivik’s murder of 77 people in Norway in 2011.chromecast setup ipad

Characterising France’s millions of Muslims as one single entity composed of murderous brothers and sisters for whom the whole family is responsible, is like the age-old racism that fails to tell two black men apart.

Feeding prejudice and Islamophobia isolates moderate Muslims, and makes radical recruitment for the young, angry and alienated all the easier.

But the hysteria over a country supposedly overrun by radicals is loudest overseas.

Fox News warns of France’s “hundreds of ‘no-go’ zones – neighbourhoods where neither tourists nor cops dare enter,” and where “poor and alienated Muslims have intimidated the government,” prompting fears that a fresh jihad is “festering unchecked.”

United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) leader Nigel Farage inveighed against the “no-go” areas too, and pledged to “protect Christian culture” in the UK.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged French Jews to immigrate to Israel for their safety.

And Marine Le Pen, leader of the far right National Front, is reiterating calls for cuts to immigration and a return to the death penalty.

Nowhere in the acres of breathless hyperbole do we see useful policy suggestions or even sensible questions.  Such as, can an aggressively secular state accommodate religious communities? How to maintain public order without trampling on civil liberties?  How do multicultural societies cope with deep differences?  How to connect with disaffected youth in les banlieues before they’re indoctrinated by extremists?

SOLIDARITY
These are among the questions being debated here, by thinking individuals.  France’s political leaders have acted with surprising levels of solidarity and sensitivity.

The National Assembly held a minute of silence for the victims of last week’s attacks. Prime Minister Manuel Valls eulogized the officers and a normally fractious parliament sang La Marseillaise in solemn unison – something it hasn’t done since 1918.

Le Juste Milieu
While Valls pledged to wage a war on radical Islam, announcing the deployment of 10,000 soldiers in ‘sensitive areas,’ he took pains to add, “France is not against Islam or Muslims.”

It’s part of a continued effort at avoiding an “amalgame,” French shorthand for painting extremists and moderates with one Islamic brush.

But in some quarters the call has fallen on deaf ears. Reactionary delinquents are busy finding scapegoats. More than fifty anti-Muslim incidents have been reported since last week’s attacks, including dozens of threats, at least one explosion near a mosque and vandalism of others.

Meanwhile terrorist sympathizers are celebrating the massacre.

The Interior Ministry revealed on Monday that more than 3,000 online messages have been flagged for glorifying last week’s Islamist attacks and advocating more to come.  A 30-year old from Strasbourg faces up to seven years imprisonment for posting a photo of himself with a Kalashnikov and a message endorsing the violence.

With new battle lines being drawn, unlikely alliances are being forged.

NEW ALLIANCES
Hacktivists are disabling jihadist websites and passing on their data to the French authorities.  Vowing to avenge the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the hacking group Anonymous said it closed down a major site connected to terrorist social networks.

As intelligence services prepare to answer difficult questions about how known criminals were allowed to carry out last week’s attacks, state surveillance will be increased. Social networks will be monitored more closely.

We will see whether they suppress civil liberties as in post 9/11 America, where embarrassed secret services compensated for security lapses with a heavy hand.   Government officials here have been quick to deny they will adopt anything like the Patriot Act “à la Française” or a French NSA.

Liberty vs Over-reach
France is at a cross-roads.  Over the past week, we’ve seen millions march in solidarity not seen since the first world war.  The government has striven to overcome fear and division. But it will also deploy more troops and police, increase surveillance, and faces pressure for tougher legislation from predictable quarters.

Dealing in the dark arts of hateful tribalism though, are right-wing reactionaries who continue a campaign of fear and division. It’s a gambit aimed at further ostracising Muslims and scaring a traumatized nation until the outsiders are purged.

Far-right zealots and the Islamic extremists they claim to hate, have more in common than they would like to admit.

It’s time we stop asking polite questions of rogues, and sound the alarm before it gets ugly again.