As a Frenchman, who was born in an Arab country, grew up among Arabs, lived with them and played with them until the age of 14, I believe that what Charlie Hebdo did shows that despite all our culture, neither the Europeans nor the Americans know the Arabs, understand their mentality and their history.

Although everyone talks about freedom of expression, we should not forget that the Arab world was not able to develop like the Christian world or the Jewish world after their defeat. They are still grieving about it after centuries. We should not forget for one minute that the Occident, and primarily Europe, has fought against the Arabs and expelled them from Spain, where they were much more advanced in many fields of science and humanities than the Europeans at that time.

Eventually they were colonized and squeezed by the Ottomans and later by the European powers, which kept them ignorant. I am not amazed that the Arabs hold on to their past and to their religion. The majority of Arabs don’t have any other foundation and even the intellectuals are shackled by the religious. Of course today there is a good intellectual minority, which is on the same level as the Europeans.

Although the freedom of expression is one of the postulates of the Occident, respect and consideration is a postulate of the Orient. When these two civilizations clash, bad things happen. There is no simple solution.

Although I do not agree with our president on most of the issues, I believe that he has some understanding of Muslim culture, although he is at a loss when it comes to dealing with the Arab states. This is why his endeavors to change the governments in North Africa have failed and he sided with Islamists (the Muslim Brotherhood), without even being aware of it.

For as long as the West will want to convert the East and the East will want to convert the West there will always be clashes.

Copyright 2015 Emile Tubiana