France is a resilient nation

Le Monde – January 10, 2015 –

Faced with the barbaric acts committed in Paris, the French people are capable of finding, in the face of adversity, the strength to rise again. And of demonstrating solidarity. No party should be excluded from this, not even the National Front.

France has undoubtedly just experienced one of its most profound traumas since the Second World War. First and foremost, through the assassination of an entire newspaper staff, one of our most cherished values ​​was targeted: freedom of expression. To this horrific act, the French people did not respond with fear, despondency, or passive anger. On the contrary, they are responding with an immense outpouring of patriotism. Tens of millions of us observed the minute of silence on Thursday, January 8th. Demonstrations of support for Charlie Hebdo are multiplying spontaneously across cities and cities, and social media is overflowing with messages of solidarity and calls to fight against religious obscurantism. This surge of support transcends all political and religious divides, something that hasn't happened in a very long time. Thus, for example, the main and most identity-focused Muslim organization, the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF), which had sued Charlie Hebdo after the publication of the Muhammad cartoons, immediately condemned the massacre in very strong terms and called on its members to join the marches in support of the newspaper and freedom of expression. All political parties mobilized in this regard, and it is deplorable that the handful of members of parliament who organized the large demonstration on Sunday, January 11, refused to allow the National Front to participate. My views are diametrically opposed to those of this party, but I wonder why, in the name of such a precious moment of solidarity and national unity, they sought to break this momentum by excluding one of the main French political parties?

The terror, alas, continued with the murder of a policewoman in Montrouge and the latest deadly attack in Vincennes against the Jewish community, which has become a constant target of these jihadists. Some also choose to respond violently to these terrorist acts, as evidenced by the burning of mosques, creating an unfair conflation of Islam and Islamist fanaticism. There is no religious war, nor a clash of civilizations. There is a confrontation between those who are civilized, regardless of their religious or ethnic affiliation, and individuals or groups who are no longer civilized, and who have sometimes even lost all sense of humanity.

When an individual experiences a powerful traumatic shock, they may collapse. They can also fight back and find in the ordeal new strengths that will help them not only to recover, but also sometimes to grow and surpass themselves. This is called resilience. This concept can be applied to nations. The French, who seemed so depressed, resigned, and more divided than ever, are mobilizing—beyond all political, social, and religious divides—to reject the dictatorship of terror and defend the core values ​​of our Republic: freedom of expression and the acceptance of diversity of thought and belief. Although deeply shocked by these barbaric acts, they are responding with a desire to stand together and to say loud and clear "no" to all forms of deadly violence. The French have therefore chosen resilience.

This series of traumatic criminal acts, which have shaken us to our core, cannot overshadow the positive and constructive reaction of the vast majority of our fellow citizens. After the initial shock and anger, we want to believe in our shared destiny, to reaffirm with strength the humanist ideals of the Enlightenment that underpin the laws of the Republic and transcend our borders. The many victims of this series of attacks did not die in vain.