JEDDAH: The French-Algerian journalist Nabila Ramdani has won the “Contrarian of the Year” award for an article about the January 2015 attacks on the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris.
Ramdani was honored at the recent Comment Awards 2016, which celebrate the achievements of the UK’s finest and most influential print and online commentators, and their editors.
The awards, run by the networking business Editorial Intelligence, were given out at an event in London in late November. Other categories included Columnist of the Year, Best Comment Pages, and Commentariat of the Year.
Charlie Hebdo magazine depicted the Prophet Muhammad — peace be upon him — in a series of cartoons, which deeply offended a large number of Muslims around the world. The cartoons were apparently a factor in prompting two gunmen to force their way into the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo and open fire, killing twelve.
Speaking to Arab News, Ramdani said her article was a very simple one — and based on nothing but facts. “I expressed horror and outrage at what amounted to a vile terrorist attack in my home city of Paris. The slaughter that took place around the Charlie Hebdo office in January 2015 was abhorrent,” she said.
Ramdani also suggested in her award-winning article that Charlie Hebdo was a “ugly” magazine that pushed the boundaries of free speech to terrifying limits. “It was particularly cruel toward people from my kind of background, effectively portraying us as the ‘alien enemy within’ and our culture and beliefs as worthless,” she added.
Ramdani’s argument was that French society had enough defamation and anti-discrimination laws aimed at clamping down on hate to stop Charlie Hebdo’s “campaign against Muslims” and other ethnic and religious minorities. But it was allowed to continue in this campaign, in a manner that was highly reckless, according to the journalist.
Ramdani added that she does not consider such a view “contrarian” at all. “I consider it a common-sense view shared by millions, from all kinds of backgrounds,” she said.
Ramdani added that liberalism and secularism are two principles of French society that are being manipulated by those with political agendas.
According to her, liberalism means liberty and equality — the conditions that allow all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds to thrive in society. Secularism means that religion does not interfere in the institutions of the state, and the state does not interfere in religion. Just as crucially, secularism means that all religions are protected and are allowed to flourish under the law.
“These definitions are not just my own. They are universal ones, as applicable to political philosophy as they are to the theory behind the French republic. Sadly, agenda-led politicians invariably manipulate these pure ideas to formulate divisive policies.”
Ramdani, who has won several journalism awards over the past years, has no secret recipe to success, saying she simply does the very best she can at everything she does. She was, naturally, delighted to win. “It means a great deal to me to go up against big names who have worked in the British media all their careers, and to do so well,” she said.
“Journalism is particularly important to me — it is a passion, rather than a career. It gives me the chance to write, which I love, and also to research and to express opinions that might otherwise not be heard.”
She pointed out that there are not many journalists from Arab Muslim backgrounds working in the mainstream British media, which makes her feel very lucky to be able to work in such a vibrant, exciting media. “Awards are just a bonus,” she added.
