Freedom of expression was supposedly extolled in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, but while the government actively defends "offensive" free speech on one hand, it represses the expression of beliefs, ideas and opinions it finds offensive on the other.
It seems points of view that play into the manufactured "clash of civilisations" narrative and the global "war on terror" are exalted, no matter how vilifying they are, while equivalent expression directed elsewhere is muzzled as "hate speech". And when "free speech" vilifies a group or ideas within society the elite wishes to criticise, such as "sects", then it is celebrated, and the government even enacts laws to selectively discriminate against and suppress the groups and ideas it finds offensive, with mass media support, stifling their freedom of expression. When minority religious groups are actively suppressed and harassed by a state and media apparatus for their thought crime -- as heretics of a modern-day inquisition -- is the government really living up to its motto of "Liberte, Ã"degreesgalite, Fraternite" (liberty, equality and fraternity)?
In France, all people, beliefs and ideas are treated equally, but some it seems are much more equal than others.
While support for free speech is highly selective and conditional in France, it is not alone in the Western world for employing double standards concerning the free expression of beliefs and ideas which are outside the status quo. A similar suppression occurs in other western countries through fomenting fear and paranoia toward alternative spirituality with support of the media, and exploiting suspicious isolated tragedies to fuel a far-reaching backlash. This results in minorities being tarred with the same brush due to the actions of a few, and treated in ways that would never be acceptable to favoured groups within society. These attitudes and double standards are widespread in the West; France has just gone a step further by putting this prejudice into law.
Unless the laws and social conventions concerning free speech, hate speech and religious freedom and expression are applied equally in the West, then any claims we make to being the bastion of liberty and freedom of expression will ring hollow.
This article was originally published at The Conscious Reporter
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