Three cheers for the Pope

On a flight to Manila from Colombo, Pope Francis told reporters who sought his views on Charlie Hebdo's right to caricature Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) that "One cannot provoke, one cannot insult other people's faith, one cannot make fun of faith." The Pontiff stated further: "There is a limit. Every religion has its dignity ... in freedom of expression there are limits." The Pope's comments went viral in the media worldwide instantly.
The Pope elaborated his concerns further when he added that freedom of expression carries with it an "obligation" to speak for "the common good." He emphasised that provocation cannot be acceptable under any circumstances to defend freedom of expression, adding that both freedom of expression and freedom of faith are fundamental human rights.
The Pope has underlined what is really the problem with the western world. When Charlie Hebdo reappeared following the attacks, it was said on behalf of the paper that the cartoonists had tried to instil elements on humour in the followers of Islam. One needs to ask those who give such weird explanations a simple question: When has religion become a subject of fun and frolic?
Charlie Hebdo is a left-wing magazine with a circulation of 45,000. It is a successor of Hara Kari magazine, which was banned for mocking the death of former French President Charles De Gaulle. Therefore if the French Government could have banned Hara Kari for mocking the former President, certainly it could and should have taken action against Charlie Hebdo for humiliating someone like the Prophet of Islam.
The Pope has, however, been as scathing in condemning the Charlie Hebdo attacks as any of the western leaders. He was fair in his condemnation. He condemned religious fundamentalism of all kinds when he addressed the diplomatic corps following the Charlie Hebdo attack. He stated: "I express my hope that religious, political and intellectual leaders, especially those of the Muslim community, will condemn all fundamentalist and extremist interpretations of religion which attempt to justify such acts of violence."
The strategies of Muslims who commit acts of terror in the name of religion have changed. The complex plans designed for maximum terror effect like those seen on 9/11 are becoming matters of the past. In the new strategy, sleeper cells of home-grown terrorists are committing such acts as seen in Ottawa, Sydney and now Paris that are difficult to anticipate as the actors do not have to come through any security net and may be in their place of action for years before they act. Most importantly, these latest terror attacks are on soft targets where the perpetrators can easily prey upon their targets and believe they can easily get away. If the perpetrators are prepared to die, as was the case in Paris, the terrorist acts are that much easier to commit because guns and automatic weapons that are the only things required to commit such acts are as easy to buy as simple merchandise with the United States the best place from the point of view of these home grown terrorists.
A major way to deal with this changing nature of terrorism would be to isolate Islam from these terrorist acts and treat these terrorists and their acts as the Pope had stated after the Paris massacres and on-going Mideast conflicts that the attackers were enslaved by "deviant forms of religion" that used God as a mere ideological pretext to perpetuate mass killings. Such a view would take on board the overwhelming majority of the 1.6 million world Muslims who have denounced these fellow Muslims of theirs who use their religion in a deviant form to kill as strongly and as unitedly as the western nations. In fact the over 300 million Muslims or 20 per cent of followers of Islam who live in the western countries have stronger reasons to denounce and expose these fellow Muslims who kill in the name of their religion that they believe and follow a religion of peace because their own well-being is inextricably linked to establishing Islam has absolutely nothing to do with the acts of terror in its name - that their Prophet (pbuh) had preached that killing one of a mankind without reason is like killing the rest of mankind.
The Pope's message should become the theme of the meeting of world leaders that President Obama has decided to call in Washington on February 18 to "coordinate global fight against home-grown terrorism." The world leaders led by President Obama would be able to lead the world out of this new and dangerous era of home-grown terrorism to which it has entered by also remembering, first, that they themselves have made availability of the weapons to kill as easy in their countries as buying innocuous items from the store, and second, there are political injustices that have been committed against Muslims by the West in the Muslim countries by invasion in the name of war on terror where deaths of innocent Muslim men, women and children in hundreds of thousands have been dismissed as "collateral damages". And, of course, these world leaders should be aware of the impact of the Palestinian problem upon the minds of Muslims in the Mideast in particular and the world in general.
Nevertheless, for the moment, it is three cheers for the Pope for his courage, wisdom and vision to give the world a sense of direction for the way out of terrorism that is entering a new and dangerous phase as witnessed in Paris, Ottawa and Sydney in recent times.

A career diplomat, the writer is a former Ambassador.
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