When Manuel Valls says there's nothing to understand because "understanding is justifying," he echoes back to Georges W Bush's logic in 2001. When François Hollande says "they are attacking us because of who we are," what does it say about victims in Mali, Baghdad, Ivory Coast or Turkey?

We are in a world that is connected, but is not communicating.

Feeling sympathy and searching for explanations isn't the same as believing that the violence is justified.

Our pluralist society must provide its citizens with the tools to understand religions, their symbols and their practices.

Your country needs religious leaders and religious politicians

Freedom of expression is not absolute. Countries have laws that define the framework for exercising this right and which, for instance, condemn racist language.

Being Muslim has become synonymous with pointed questions, with tension and mistrust, even with conflict. It has become a global phenomenon with profound consequences for inter-communal relations, political rhetoric and policies at the local, regional, national and international level.