It is crucial that we maintain some principles such as the freedom of expression, since the right is, by any means, essential to every individual. As much as we disagree with one another, this fundamental right should be upheld.

The problem however arises when this right is abused and the powerless minorities in an already toxic environment are affected by it. Charlie Hebdo was stigmatising Muslims and, in the West today, there is an apparent normalisation and standardisation of this discourse. In fact, political parties, in particular far right groups, are ‘Islamising’ every issue.

After the tragic events, we saw some of the hypocritical world leaders march for the same free speech which they often oppress. The King of Jordan, who sentenced a Palestinian Journalist to 15 years in prison last year; Prime Minister Netanyahu, whose forces killed 17 journalists in Gaza last year; Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Shoukry, who detained Al Jazeera staff as well as detaining Journalist Shawkan. Surely, if the UK government was any better and truly upholds absolute free speech it would not have forced the Guardian to destroy the hard disk containing the Snowden files either.