On Sunday, assorted Muslim organisations gathered in London to demonstrate against the publication of ‘insulting’ cartoons of Muhammad. Their demonstration confirmed that the passions aroused by the Charlie Hebdo affair remain undiminished.

This is not a surprise. One month on, the Charlie Hebdo massacre continues to have a profound effect on the public imagination – not just in Europe, but throughout the world. The massacre, which was quickly followed by the killing of Jewish shoppers at a kosher supermarket, was widely interpreted as a clear sign that every Western society is at risk of terrorist attack. The carnage in Paris provoked an unprecedented display of public solidarity with the victims. Mass demonstrations in France and many other parts of the world proclaimed the importance of free speech, tolerance and liberty. Some hoped that this display of solidarity would lead to a greater affirmation of democratic values. Others believed that the callous act of terror would at least prompt jihadist supporters to re-examine their allegiances and adopt a more tolerant approach to public life. A month later, it is now possible to start assessing the legacy of the Paris killings. The reactions to the Charlie Hebdo massacre brought to the surface some very uncomfortable lessons.

1) Je Suis Charlie, but only some of the time… The immediate displays of solidarity with Charlie Hebdo, and the celebration of freedom of speech, were truly inspirational. Millions of people were clearly affected by what happened, and they expressed a genuine concern over the threat posed to democratic values. It seemed that at long last a significant section of the public had realised how important it was to defend free speech and expression.

However, it soon became clear that for many who were proclaiming their allegiance to Charlie Hebdo, free speech came with qualifications and ‘buts’. Within days of the massacre, many commentators were more or less suggesting that the inflammatory cartoons, and therefore the cartoonists, were at least indirectly responsible for the slaughter. Tony Barber, the European editor of the Financial Times, condemned Charlie Hebdo for ‘mocking, baiting and needling French Muslims’. The American conservative Pat Buchanan argued that ‘there is no doubt’ that the cartoonists brought it on themselves. Numerous Muslim leaders in Europe and America echoed Buchanan – it was the cartoonists’ own fault. Globally, it appears that many agree with Buchanan’s assessment. In Russia, one survey showed that the public had very little sympathy for the murdered journalists. In Turkey and other Muslim countries, a significant section of the media blamed the cartoonists for their own deaths.

But one doesn’t have to travel to Turkey or Pakistan to find people who feel that Charlie Hebdo deserved what it got. It soon became clear that even in France, the republican consensus celebrated by the French media was more apparent than real. In many of Paris’s banlieues, there was little mourning. In French schools, young Muslim pupils refused to believe the official version of events and expressed hostility towards Charlie Hebdo. What this reaction to the massacre shows is that alongside the media display of solidarity with the victims there lurks unreserved hatred for both Charlie Hebdo and the cultural attitudes that permit its publication. 2) Sympathy for the victims of the massacre does not extend to solidarity for Charlie Hebdo

Sympathy for the dead journalists was a spontaneous human reaction to a tragic loss of life. Many of those who mourned the dead – especially in France – also interpreted the terrorist attacks as a direct threat to themselves. Unfortunately, sympathy for the victims of the massacre sometimes gave way to embarrassment about what Charlie Hebdo stood for. This shows that it was one thing to mourn the murdered victims, but quite another to uphold the principle of free expression that allows a provocative publication like Charlie Hebdo to exist. In Ireland, a debate broke out about whether the sale of the post-massacre issue of Charlie Hebdo was illegal under Ireland’s blasphemy laws. One school in Limerick did not wait to find out – it swiftly apologised to a Muslim pupil who took offence when a copy of Charlie Hebdo was produced in the classroom. Apology and embarrassment were prevalent across the globe. A Japanese newspaper, the Tokyo Shimbun, apologised to Muslims for reprinting cartoons that mocked Muhammad. So, too, did the Star in Kenya, and the Citizen in South Africa. The European press also joined in the apologies. In the UK, the Guardian’s readers’ editor offered a cringing apology to those offended by the papers’ use of ‘that image’.

Of course, newspapers are under no obligation to reprint cartoons produced by another publication. There are other ways of demonstrating support for press freedom. But what this hesitant, confused and defensive display showed was not just a fear of causing offence, but a retreat from the ideal of publish and be damned. 3) Republicans and liberals are at a loss as to how to deal with their enemies

After the massive demonstration of solidarity with, and support for, Charlie Hebdo, it is disturbing to note that France’s republican values are on the defensive. In the days following the massacre, it became clear that many children of Muslim heritage were vociferous in their rejection of laïcité – the concept of state secularism. The ideal of state secularism, which has served as the defining principle of the French Republic, has little support among France’s five million Muslim citizens. That is why teachers in some French schools find it difficult to exercise authority over children who reject either liberal secular values or the standpoint of universalism. Sadly, the French government reacted to the travails of state secularism by issuing an edict to strengthen the teaching of laïcité in public schools. From September, students and parents must sign a charter to ‘demonstrate their willingness to respect [laïcité]’. It is likely that the campaign to promote secular republican values in schools is a reaction to the news that many Muslim children refused to respect the national minute of silence for the dead. The shocked realisation that many French citizens are hostile to the French way of life has sparked panic – hence the decision to force pupils to embrace an outlook they despise. The confused response of French officialdom parallels the UK government’s reaction to the realisation that some schools in England have come under the influence of radical Islamist ideas. But, like the attempt to force allegiance to laïcité, the attempt to teach British values to youngsters brought up to be hostile to them is most likely futile.

The polarised reaction to Charlie Hebdo, with one side mourning the death of the cartoonists and the other side refusing to, exposes the cultural antagonism that lies at the heart of many European societies. One of the few positive outcomes of the massacre is that since it has brought these divisions to the surface, the scale of the problem can no longer be ignored. However, the French government, like its British counterpart, lacks clarity about the challenge it faces. Outwardly, this challenge takes the form of radical Islam, but, in terms of content, it differs little from the politics of identity that now dominates Western public life. The politicisation of identity, which has led to competitive claims-making between different lifestyles, ethnicities and groups, has provided the intellectual and moral resources through which proponents of an Islamist sub-culture express their views. Since secularism represents an offence to their identity, Islamists experience liberalism as their own negation. The refrain of ‘I am offended’ suggests that ‘how I feel’ is far more important than any wider norms and values. Since Western European culture has become hospitable to the pathologisation of causing offence, it finds it difficult wholeheartedly and consistently to promote the ideals of liberty and tolerance. The French state’s response to this fundamental challenge to its moral authority only exposes its insecurity. The French police’s detention of an eight-year-old child who proclaimed his support for one of the Charlie Hebdo killers is testimony to the state’s stupidity.

4) There are free-speech double standards on both sides One reason why there was such a powerful wave of sympathy for the victims of the massacre was because of the prominence the media gave to it. Experience shows that the media always takes a special interest in events that threaten it. Tragedies that befall journalists are always likely to attract greater media interest than, say, the massacre of 20 boys in Nigeria by Boko Haram. The ‘limited-edition badge’, sporting the slogan ‘Je Suis Charlie’, produced by the Guardian ‘to enable readers to show their solidarity and support for journalistic freedom’, symbolises the understandable response of the media to attacks on itself.