The Charlie Hebdo Debate: Islam, Europe, Freedom of Expression, and the Antinomies of Liberalism

The horrific attacks on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher market in Paris have sent shock waves across Europe and the West more generally. An anti-Muslim backlash is growing, with right-wing populist parties mobilizing across Europe and acts of violence and vandalism against Muslims on the rise. These events have reignited smoldering cultural tensions and re-opened talk of a civilizational war between Islam and the West. Is there an unbridgeable chasm between Islamic and liberal values? Are there limits to tolerance? Have European states failed to integrate Muslim migrants (and their European-born children and grandchildren)? Is it hypocritical for France to champion freedom of expression while arresting dozens on the vague charge of “defending terrorism”? Does liberalism offer a useful framework for making sense of these issues, or is it collapsing under the weight of its internal contradictions?