Lesson from Paris Tragedy: The West Should Learn from Chinese Taoists

Paris, the heart of Western culture, suffered a terrorist attack on Jan. 7 in which 12 people died. The fact that Western countries, which were once seen as lands of peace and harmony, could still be hurt by terrorists shocked the whole world. From Washington, D.C. to Beijing, from London to Brussels, from Moscow to New Delhi, all world leaders strongly criticized the attacks.

Charlie Hebdo, the magazine which was attacked, had been targeted before for its satire of Islam and the prophet Muhammad. When the cartoon was first published, the magazine’s office was firebombed. After the Paris bloodbath, the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten increased security, since this paper has offended some Muslims by publishing cartoons involving the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The Spanish newspaper, El País, also evacuated its Madrid office after receiving a suspicious package on the same afternoon of the attack.

The sudden assault on the French magazine frightened a lot of Americans. According to America’s Newsmax, new research has shown that 74 percent of Americans are afraid of the country becoming a target of the Islamic State.

China has also suffered greatly from terrorism; Chinese citizens feel French citizens’ pain. While some Western media are likely to confuse the issue of terrorist attacks in China due to their political interests, no rational Chinese would applaud such behavior.

When we promote freedom of speech, we also have to respect civilization’s diversity and value all beliefs. No matter what the religion or belief, it should be respected. If insults, attacks and satire on other ethnic groups and religions are part of your own values, then you are forgetting that all civilizations are progressive, valid and inviolate, and insulting them will surely incite hate.

If you felt that your own civilization was the universal one and all others were heretical, and you publicly insulted and attacked other civilizations, ignoring the feelings of other civilizations’ followers, and if you used military force to overpower them and tried to use democratic values to monopolize the world, then you would only achieve the opposite effect.

So-called freedom of speech works the same way. Any freedom has boundaries and should not hurt others. Would you shout “Heil, Hitler” in Germany, violate Jesus in Rome or insult George Washington in America? The pompous Western way of thinking should accept Lao Tse’s view that “one can maintain a harmonious relationship with others while not agreeing on everything.” Different civilizations should respect one another just as Putin warned Russians to learn racial and religious tolerance.

Terrorism is often connected to ethnic and religious problems. Terrorism uses religious issues as a way to attract people to join its cause and legitimizes itself with religion. Historically, Western countries have always emphasized that their religions were paramount and other beliefs were just a joke. No country or individual should force its own religion on others. Only you know what’s best for yourself, and you have the right to express it. Anyone interfering by force would face retaliation, publicly or privately.

In this age where a multiplicity of civilizations, cultures and religions exists, Western countries should acknowledge that pluralism is valid, and that no one civilization or religion is superior to another. Absent such understanding, this type of conflict will continue to breed terrorism. Freedom of the press or freedom of speech is no excuse to insult other religions! The West should eradicate any religious bias which breeds terrorism. Maybe this terrorist attack will be a wake-up call to Western countries.