The devastating attack on the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo has provoked shock and anger across the world, and rekindled a debate about the boundaries of free expression.

One thing must be noted: yes, those cartoons offended many, many Muslims. But a vast majority do not see these attacks as being justified. For many, they are politically, not religiously motivated.

What the cartoons symbolise and represent, in a global war on terror, which is increasingly being seen as a global war on Islam, is just another peg in a list of grievances that Muslims feel is being imposed on their identities and faith worldwide.

To suggest that this is about irreconcilable values, an attack against freedom of speech and expression, is a farce. It is also a corpulent, untruthful summation of European values, which I feel are liberal only when it benefits those in power.

France and Britain continue to involve themselves in American-led wars abroad, while maintaining an ambiguous policy for migrants trying to flee their war-torn nations. According to research by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), for the past 14 years, almost eight people have died every day trying to reach wealthy countries, particularly Europe.

So, if freedom of expression and equal access to opportunity are not a given, and universal human rights is part of political expediency, how is the attack a bombardment upon those values that don’t even fully exist? To be sure, framing these attacks as an attack on freedom of expression is a diversion tactic.

It seeks to find simplistic explanations in an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ rhetoric that has little relevance to the lives of many of the criminals who commit these crimes. What the diversion does, is take away attention from the root of discontent and yes, violence, among many Muslims today, be it in the suburbs of Paris or the streets of Gaza.

Again, we don’t want to talk about causality, because this raises uncomfortable questions about the legacies of colonialism, racism and economic exploitation that remain firmly enmeshed with the ideas purported by the very same Western liberalism that shouts ‘freedom of expression!’

- The reader is a South African educator based in Cape Town, South Africa