In the name of the Republic: Untimely meditations on the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attack (Respond to this article at https://www.therai.org.uk/publications/anthropology-today/debate)

In the wake of the killings at Charlie Hebdo offices and in a kosher supermarket in January 2015, an unprecedented national mobilization took place in France in defence of the endangered ‘values of the Republic’: liberty, equality, fraternity, to which had been added laïcité, the French version of secularism. However, the unanimity was soon disrupted as some did not join the ‘Je suis Charlie’ movement, questioning the double standard in the implementation of these principles. This essay analyzes the variations and flaws in the application of liberty, in particular free speech, and of laïcité, to the detriment of Islam, and discusses how equality and fraternity are currently undermined by social disparities and racial discriminations, which are in part inherited from the colonial past. Although they might seem untimely in such consensual moments, these meditations invite a critical reflection on the contradictions of contemporary democracies.