Open Letter: On Blasphemy, Islamophobia, and the True Enemies of Free Expression (7 page)

If “atheophobia” denotes the violent criticism of atheism, I invite my Bible-thumping friends to sign up without fear for their safety. Don’t reserve your insults to Reason for the privacy of those tombs of thought you call temples, churches, synagogues, and mosques! Publish newspapers and blogs, stage plays and puppet shows, to mock what you see as the absurdity of life without God, of life without your Supreme Blankie! Draw cartoons of the absence of God, give it a big nose, a little nose, wild eyes, shaggy hair—no atheist will sue you, you will receive no death threats, and your offices will not be destroyed.

It turns out that there is no such thing as atheist terrorism in the twenty-first century. Atheists are persecuted pretty much all over the world, but none of them destroy the works of art created by believers to honor their God. Better yet, these atheist fools are often the very first to demand protection for religious sites threatened by pious barbarians who think beauty represents blasphemy against their Creator. A Creator who is blind and deaf, mean as fuck and dumb as a plank.

Go ahead! I dare you! I dare you simply to laugh at those you consider your enemies, laugh your heart out (unless that’s a sin) at the heretics, infidels, and apostates—no one will kill you in the name of something that doesn’t exist! No atheist will call you an anti-atheist racist. Aren’t atheists cool? Atheists will rouse themselves to seek justice only when they are the victims of discrimination based on their lack of faith. Refusing to hire an atheist because he’s an atheist and refusing to hire a Muslim because he’s Muslim are covered by the same laws, the same rights, the same courts. No form of discrimination is better or worse than any other.

Charb (Stéphane Charbonnier, August 21, 1967–January 7, 2015) was a French journalist, political cartoonist, and satirist. Born and raised outside of Paris, Charb honed his drawing skills as a teenager and contributed illustrations to his college newspaper and local publications. He joined the staff of
Charlie Hebdo
in 1992 and held the position of editor in chief from 2009 until his death in 2015. An atheist, pacifist, and staunch advocate of free speech, Charb was known for cartoons that mocked political figures and organized religion.

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Copyright © 2015 by Les Échappés
Translation copyright © 2016 by Little, Brown and Company
Foreword copyright © 2016 by Adam Gopnik
Cover design by Mario J. Pulice
Author photograph courtesy of BALTEL/SIPA via AP Images
Cover copyright © 2016 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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First English language ebook edition: January 2016

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ISBN 978-0-316-31134-2

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