Anti-Charlie Hebdo Protests

While much of the Western world was rallying against the terrorist attacks on the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo, across different parts of the world, many Muslims rallied against the magazine for its depiction of the Prophet Mohammed. Notably, in Chechnya, Republican President Ramzan Kadyrov presided over a public demonstration against “Charlie Hebdo” and in defense of the integrity of Islam. In Kyrgyzstan, more than a thousand people rallied in Bishkek to protest “Charlie Hebdo” and the West’s defense of its work under freedom of speech. Surely, Russia publicly sympathized with France over the attacks, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov took part in the Paris Unity march in which over 3 million people rallied in defense of free speech. However, across different regions in Russia and Central Asia, the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed are deeply offensive and angering, and have caused protests accordingly.

The Charlie Hebdo attacks were received heinously in the West, France was shocked, and many in the mainly Christian West saw it as an affront toward freedom of speech and another manifestation of Radical Islam. This unequivocal reaction resulted a gallant defense for Charlie Hebdo and the principles that the West stands for, but it has not breached a significant conversation about what caricaturing the Prophet Mohammed means. It is widely held that making illustrations of the Prophet is wrong in Islam, and it must be understood that this is an actual affront to many peoples’ deep beliefs. The thousands of Muslims from Chechnya to Kyrgyzstan protesting represent an indignation that their way of life can be mocked over the press in the West under the cover of an unfettered free speech. The state, in the case of Chechnya, has chosen to be manifest that feeling and make its citizens’ feelings known.

However, there is another, serious dimension to this. In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, the French government has whole-heartedly supported Charlie Hebdo, but, at the same time, Muslims have faced pressures and harassment across Europe. From right wing political statements, to 25,000 people-strong anti-Muslim rallies in Germany, Western Europe is not always a comfortable spot to be a Muslim. This atmosphere can lead to marginalization and, eventually, radicalization. In Chechnya, Russia has been fighting an Islamist insurgency for over a decade, and although the brutal fighting is over, the unrest refuses to go away. Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin loyalist President of Chechnya, needs to stop any of his citizens from going over to radical Islam. Extremists need reactions like those in Western Europe to create a narrative of a “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the West, they thrive off images demonstrating an innate hatred for Muslims in Western civilization that will appeal to Muslims from all over the world to join their cause. Kadyrov, rather than siding with free speech supporters in the West, is pre-empting the jihadists by making space in officialdom and giving a voice to Muslims who feel like their creeds are taken for granted outside their homes.

From the Kremlin, sympathizing with France over the Charlie Hebdo massacre is about recognizing the need to combat terrorism; not necessarily about defending the integrity of free speech. In Chechnya, and across other Muslim regions in Russia wrecked by insurgency since the 1990s, the state needs to undermine the terrorists both military and politically. Public demonstrations with government support against Charlie Hebdo form part of that campaign to create as large a tent as possible within the Russian state so that the jihadists lose their narrative and get further pushed out of the mainstream.