'I don't condone the murder of cartoonists but...'

A secondary argument made by some is that Islam shouldn't be satirised because Muslims are a minority and satire should be used to mock the powerful, not the weak. This sort of thinking is wrong on at least two counts. Firstly, Charlie Hebdo mocked extremism, not Islam. Secondly, extremist Islam does have a powerful voice; one that is drowning out the voice of an overwhelming majority of Muslims. Extremist Islam is denying the reality that most Muslims are moderates who loathe this hijacking of their faith by barbarians, rapists and murderers.

There is nothing intrinsically violent about Islam. As Australians, we are lucky to have the largest Muslim country and fourth-largest country in the world right next door in Indonesia: an overwhelmingly moderate, tolerant, and thriving democracy.

There is something terribly wrong about a splinter group so hyper-sensitive about their religion that they are willing to kill people for laughing at them. There is also something intrinsically wrong with the victim-blaming by sections of the left. And there is deep cognitive dissonance in those who claim on the one hand to be tolerant, but on the other will readily apologise for an extremist movement characterised by its deep-seated hatred of diversity.

At best these people are unconsciously ameliorating the barbarity of the act. At worst they believe, at some level, it was justified.

It is depressing that in the aftermath of an unspeakable act of terror, the first response of some is to excuse it. There are no buts when it comes to the murder of journalists and cartoonists. The fault lies solely in the murderers, no-one else. To say otherwise is a moral capitulation to hatred.

My hope is, as Charlie Hebdo stated on their front page in 2011, that, 'Love is Stronger than Hate'.

I'll end with a quote from Jeanette Bougrab, partner of Stephane Charbonnier (editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo), in an extraordinarily brave interviewshe gave a day after his murder (watch it): "I have not lost Charlie Hebdo; I've lost the man I've loved…I loved him and admired him before falling in love with him because he was defiant… That's the way he was. He felt life was not worth a great deal if you did not defend an ideal."