守住法国人的多元主义

Charlie Hebdo and the Assault on French Identity

守住法国人的多元主义

Wednesday was the day when Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel, “Soumission” (Submission), hit the bookstores. It has been all Houellebecq all the time lately, as shrewd marketing from his publishing house made sure that this provocative book on France becoming an Islamic republic in 2022 would get prime-time coverage — and draw maximum controversy.

上周三是米歇尔·维勒贝克(Michel Houellebecq)最新小说《投降》(Soumission)在书店上架的日子。最近，维勒贝克曝光度很高，他的出版社开展了精明的市场营销活动，确保让这本内容富有挑衅性的作品获得黄金时段的报道——并引起最大程度的争议。这本书讲的是在2022年，法国成了一个伊斯兰共和国。

So Wednesday began with Mr. Houellebecq on morning radio, explaining that, contrary to what he said in 2010, Islam is not “the dumbest religion” after all, and that there is “space for negotiation.” Asked whether his novel was intended to scare people, he replied: “The scariest part of the novel is actually the part before the Muslims come to power.”

所以上周三是这么开始的，早上，维勒贝克在电台解释说，和他2010年的说法相反，伊斯兰教毕竟并不是“最愚蠢的宗教”，而且“协商的空间”是存在的。当被问及他的小说是否旨在吓唬人时，他回答说：“这部小说的最可怕的部分，实际上是在穆斯林掌权之前。”

To Mr. Houellebecq, the “terrifying degree of contempt” in which, in his view, politicians, judges and journalists are now held in France, is much scarier than electing a decent Muslim president.

维勒贝克认为，现在法国的政客、法官和记者受到了“极度的蔑视”，这比选出一名像样的穆斯林总统可怕得多。

Mr. Houellebecq’s light and, at the same time, terribly serious comments were still resonating when, three hours later, two heavily armed men entered the newsroom of Charlie Hebdo and perpetrated the worst massacre Paris has witnessed in decades, killing 12 people. It soon became clear that the attackers had acted to punish those free spirits who not only dared to publish, almost 10 years ago, the cartoons of Muhammad printed in a Danish newspaper that had sparked deadly protests, but never backed down after.

维勒贝克的这些评论轻描淡写，却又极为严重，三个小时后，可以说他的话音未落，就有两名全副武装的男子闯入《查理周报》的编辑部，犯下了巴黎几十年来最严重的屠杀罪行，造成12人死亡。情况很快清晰起来，袭击者此举是为了惩罚一些信仰自由的人，在大约10年前，这些人就敢于刊登穆罕默德的漫画，这些原载于一家丹麦报纸的漫画引发了流血抗议，而此后他们一直没有退缩过。

So much for “space for negotiation.” A nation in shock soon forgot Mr. Houellebecq’s niceties about the advantages of “moderate Islam.” Radical Islam had taken over the news. Again.

“协商的空间”也不过如此。震惊的法国人迅速忘记维勒贝克对“温和的伊斯兰”的美好描写。再一次，新闻报道被激进的伊斯兰所占据。

An American colleague has asked me whether the attack on Charlie Hebdo was comparable to 9/11. There is a big difference: While this attack came as a shock to the French because of the target and the high number of casualties, it did not come exactly as a surprise. We have been living with this threat for a long time now.

一位美国同事问我，《查理周报》攻击是否堪比“9·11”。其实差别很大：虽然在受到袭击的目标和伤亡人数上，这次袭击令法国人感到震惊，但袭击本身并不是特别让人意外。我们已经在这种威胁中生活很长一段时间了。

We have witnessed other hideous terrorist crimes, like Mohammed Merah’s killing of seven people, including three children at a Jewish school, three years ago in three separate attacks in southwestern France. We’ve had journalists and NGO workers kidnapped and assassinated in Syria and Africa. We know that the involvement of French armed forces in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Islamic State in Africa and the Middle East — an involvement that enjoys broad popular support — makes us a target for revenge. We are wary of the success of the Islamic State’s recruiting campaigns in our mosques, which have sent more than 1,000 young French jihadis to the Syrian and Iraqi battlegrounds.

我们目睹了其他丑恶的恐怖主义罪行，比如三年前，穆罕默德·默拉(Mohammed Merah)在法国西南部三起独立的袭击事件中杀害了七个人，其中包括一所犹太学校的三名儿童。在叙利亚和非洲，我们已经有一些记者和非政府组织工作人员遭到绑架和暗杀。我们知道，法国军队参与了打击基地组织(Al Qaeda)和在非洲和中东地区打击伊斯兰国(Islamic State)的战斗——法国人普遍支持这种参与——我们因此成了报复的对象。伊斯兰国在法国清真寺里开展的招募活动很成功，已经令1000多名年轻的法国圣战者赶赴叙利亚和伊拉克战场，对此我们颇为警惕。

Yet we also have a big, quiet and nonradicalized Muslim community living among us. Islam is the second religion in France, behind Catholicism. France is home to the biggest Muslim community in Europe, as well as the biggest Jewish community. So in order to try to keep everybody reasonably happy together, we have promoted secularism, giving way to a new motto: Liberté, égalité, fraternité, laïcité.

然而，在我们中间，也生活着一个庞大的、安静的、非激进的穆斯林群体。伊斯兰教是法国第二大宗教，仅次于天主教。法国有欧洲最大的穆斯林社区，以及最大的犹太社区。因此，为了尽量让大家都能基本满意，我们提倡世俗主义，喊出一个新的口号：自由、平等、博爱、政教分离。

This is the country where Muslim girls and Jewish boys can’t wear a veil or a yarmulke in public schools. Or where a couple is politely asked to leave if the woman declines to uncover her fully veiled face, as required by the law, during a performance of “La Traviata” at the Paris Opéra. It does not make us popular in the Arab world, but somehow it works at home: Muslim schoolgirls attend classes unveiled, and the couple left the Opéra without protesting.

在这个国家的公立学校里，穆斯林女孩不能戴面纱，犹太男孩也不能戴圆顶小帽。一对夫妇在巴黎歌剧院观看《茶花女》时，如果女方拒绝按照法律要求，揭开自己的面纱，充分露出自己的脸部，那么他们会被礼貌地要求离开。这些做法不会让我们得到阿拉伯世界的喜爱，但在法国就是行得通：穆斯林女学生上课时不戴面纱，那对夫妇离开了歌剧院，未作任何抗议。

But France is also the country of Charlie Hebdo. The 45-year-old satirical newspaper is quintessentially French, in its provocative irreverence, its not-so-tasteful yet very witty humor, its refusal to spare any taboo. The popularity of its cartoonists — the ones who were sprayed with bullets on Wednesday — extended well beyond Charlie Hebdo. They had created legendary characters for teenagers’ comic books and the gray pages of enlightened newspapers; they were regular guests on TV.

但法国也是《查理周报》的家乡。这家有45年历史的讽刺报纸具有典型的法式风格，它无所顾忌地发起挑衅，它的幽默感有些没品，但谐趣十足，拒绝对任何禁忌让步。上周三那些倒在枪林弹雨中的漫画家，人气远远超出了《查理周报》本身。他们为青少年漫画书和开明报纸的灰色页面创造了传奇人物;他们是电视上的常客。

But the eccentric team at Charlie Hebdo stubbornly stood its ground when it started to receive threats after publishing the Muhammad cartoons. In 2011, after another devastating front page headlined “Charia Hebdo,” the newspaper’s offices were destroyed in an arson attack. The journalists moved over temporarily to Libération, then to new offices. Unbowed, however, they did not change a thing, giving equal treatment to rabbis, priests, imams, sports figures and politicians.

但《查理周报》的这个离奇团队，在刊登关于穆罕默德的漫画并收到威胁之后，仍然固执地坚守阵地。2011年，它推出了一个极为挑衅的头版，题为《伊斯兰教法周报》(Charia Hebdo)，导致办公室遭到纵火破坏。记者们暂时搬到《解放报》(Libération)办公，之后又搬到新的办公室。但是，他们一如既往，给予拉比、牧师、阿訇、体育人物和政治家平等待遇。

“It may sound a bit pompous, but I’d rather die standing than live on my knees,” the newspaper’s editor, Stéphane Charbonnier, who was known as Charb, told Le Monde two years ago. On Wednesday, he died standing.

“这听起来有点像是夸夸其谈，但我宁愿站着死，也不愿跪着生，”周报编辑斯特凡纳·沙博尼耶(Stéphane Charbonnier)，笔名沙博(Charb)，两年前对《世界报》(Le Monde)说。上周三，他站着死去。

In a moving tribute on French TV, Robert Badinter, a former justice minister who led the fight to abolish the death penalty in 1981, said that these cartoonists, our beloved bad boys, were “true heroes” because they had been “soldiers of freedom.”

法国电视台播放了一场令人动容的悼念活动，前司法部长、1981年废除死刑活动的领导者罗伯特·巴丹泰(Robert Badinter)说，这些漫画家是我们心爱的坏男孩，是“真正的英雄”，因为他们是“自由战士”。

This is why the French are in shock. This is not blind terrorism. It is terrorism targeted at the heart of the French identity: Mohammed Merah targeted Jewish schools and Muslim immigrants who had joined the French Army because they were symbols of our diversity. The attackers on Wednesday targeted Charlie Hebdo because it is a symbol of our freedom.

这就是法国人震惊的原因。这不是盲目的恐怖主义。这是以法国身份的核心为目标的恐怖主义：穆罕默德·默拉把犹太学校和法国陆军中的穆斯林移民当做目标，因为他们是我们多样性的象征。周三的袭击者把《查理周报》当做目标，因为它是我们自由的象征。

So what should we do, torn between “moderate Islam” and “radical Islam”? How should we deal with Islam? The attack on Charlie Hebdo “is not only a crime, it is a trap,” warned Mr. Badinter. The trap, of course, is to confuse the two. Just like Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front, who immediately stoked fears of “Islamic fundamentalism” as if it applied to the whole French Muslim community, and as if it were the principal issue.

那么，夹在“温和的伊斯兰教”和“激进的伊斯兰教”之间的我们应该怎么办?我们应该如何应对伊斯兰教?巴丹泰警告称，对《查理周报》的攻击“不仅是一场犯罪，还是一个圈套”。当然，这里的圈套是指混淆这两种伊斯兰教，就像国民阵线(National Front)的领导人马琳·勒庞(Marine Le Pen)那样。袭击过后，她立即煽动“伊斯兰教原教旨主义”恐慌，就好像这是一个主要问题，整个法国穆斯林群体都信奉原教旨主义一样。

We are obsessed with the rise of Islam. Like Mr. Houellebecq, French intellectuals can debate Islam and secularism for hours. “Le Suicide Français” (The French Suicide) — a book by Éric Zemmour, a political essayist whose views have been compared to those of Ms. Le Pen — has topped the best-seller list.

我们对伊斯兰教的崛起倾注了许多注意力。和维勒贝克一样，法国知识分子能就伊斯兰教和世俗主义讨论数小时。《法国的自杀》(Le Suicide Français)高居畅销书排行榜榜首。该书的作者是政论家埃里克·泽穆(Éric Zemmour)，他的观点被拿来与勒庞的观点相提并论。