When Charlie Hebdo came to Scotland
BY BILLY BRIGGS
CHARLIE Hebdo, the French satirical newspaper targeted by Islamist terrorists for publishing cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, is to publish a special report on Scotland this week. Charlie Hebdo made global headlines in January 2015 when two masked men armed with Kalashnikov rifles entered its office in Paris and murdered 12 members of staff.
Witnesses to the massacre said the killers – Chérif and Saïd Kouachi – shouted in Arabic “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad” and “God is great” as they shot dead cartoonists and journalists.
Survivors of the atrocity included illustrator Laurent “Riss” Sourisseau who was shot in the shoulder. Also the paper’s publishing director, Riss owns 70 per cent of its shares.
He visited Scotland with Robert McLiam Wilson, an award-winning novelist originally from Northern Ireland who lives in Paris and pens polemics for the French magazine. The pair were accompanied by their close protection bodyguard from the French police.
Charlie Hebdo wanted to capture the mood of Scotland post-Brexit so Riss and Wilson spent five days interviewing politicians, immigrants, a priest, fishermen, and publicans and drinkers in the Gallowgate area of Glasgow, among others.
In the East Neuk of Fife they met fishermen in Pittenweem and visited Kingsbarns Distillery before travelling to the west Fife town of Ballingry to meet Willie Clarke, Britain’s last elected Communist, recently retired after serving 43 years as a councillor.
Other politicians interviewed included Patrick Harvie MSP, co-convenor of the Scottish Greens; Jackson Carlaw MSP, deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives; Tommy Sheppard, the SNP Member of Parliament for Edinburgh East, and Frank McAveety of the Scottish Labour Party, leader of Glasgow City Council.
The special report is due to be published on Wednesday. Francophone writer Wilson is best known for his highly acclaimed novel, Ripley Bogle.
The book won the Rooney Prize, the Hughes Prize, and the Irish Book Award, while his second novel, Eureka Street, was adapted for television by the BBC after winning the Belfast Arts Award for Literature.
Wilson told the Sunday Herald: “A country that largely voted to remain in the EU may now be compelled to leave it. What does this mean practically and emotionally? Will broad political allegiances now change markedly? Will people stick to the same views they held during the independence referendum or last year’s General Election? Is this a political or constitutional crisis or a political and constitutional opportunity?
“Scotland’s situation is a remarkable one. There is confusion and a lack of clear understanding of the situation in most European countries.
“From the continent, it can be quite hard to see if something is being born or something is dying, or both. One could argue that the Brexit vote was an emotional vote – though it could be claimed that all votes are really emotional votes. The reaction to the result was certainly markedly emotional in character. Continental Europeans want to know the shape of Scotland now and what its possible future might look like. There’s good will, but much confusion. We want to shed some light on that.”
Charlie Hebdo is a left-wing weekly which publishes cartoons, columns, and special reports, and is interested in politics, animal rights and environmentalism and has often been embroiled in controversy due to its irreverent and sardonic take on awkward issues – often race and religion.
The magazine mocks the far-right, particularly France’s National Front party, led by Marine Le Pen, and religions including Catholicism, Judaism and Islam are satrirised.
The publication first carried cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed in 2006. In November 2011, Charlie Hebdo’s HQ in Paris was firebombed and its website hacked after an edition entitled “Charia Hebdo” was published, with the Prophet Muhammed named as “editor-in-chief”.
It ran with the front cover headline “100 lashes of the whip if you don’t die laughing” – a response to the introduction of Sharia law in Libya and the victory of the Islamist party in Tunisia. The magazine has also taken aim at the veil, forced marriage and the stoning of women.
In September 2012, Charlie Hebdo once again published satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, including nude caricatures of him, prompting outrage among some Muslims and criticism of its editorial judgement from both the French