The Charlie Hebdo massacre, and secularism's problem with Islam

Secularism grew out of a fear of a religious majority. What happens when it's applied to a religious minority with a violent fringe?

Je Suis Charlie
(Image credit: (AP Photo/Matt Dunham))

Terrorists slaughtered a roomful of French cartoonists in Paris yesterday.

That sentence is so absurd and appalling it is difficult to accept as a statement of fact. The murderers of the staff of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine that had frequently lampooned the Prophet Muhammad and Islam, reportedly shouted, "Allah is revenged." So as France mourns its dead, Western Europe is once again forced to consider how to preserve the norms of a secular society in which religion can be mocked. This is all the more difficult when the most vital religious force in that society is a poor, devout, and mostly immigrant minority.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is the founder and editor of The Slurve, a newsletter about baseball. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ESPN Magazine, Slate and The American Conservative.