A YEAR on from the murderous assault on Charlie Hebdo, an irreverent French weekly, and the vast demonstration on the streets of Paris which followed, is it possible for all manner of citizens in a democracy, from militant atheists to pious believers, to make common cause for freedom of speech when it is under threat?

In Voltaire’s homeland, it has to be said, the mood is not very propitious, even though hundreds of French mosques opened their doors this weekend as a way of reaching out to the public. Christians and Muslims alike voiced their dismay when Charlie Hebdo marked the anniversary with a sketch that portrayed “God” as a Kalashnikov-wielding figure, under the caption, “the killer is still at large”.  The drawing drew a scoldingfrom the Vatican’s official journal, while a well-known French Catholic priest called it an insult to the victims of terrorism, a scourge which revisited Paris in November, claiming 130 lives. “Among the dead were believers who were buried in churches. Victims’ families will be insulted when they see this caricature,” said Father Pierre Amar.

But there is more encouraging news from a part of Europe which was ravaged until recently by a conflict in which the two sides were defined in religious terms, even if it was not strictly speaking a religious war. A remarkably diverse mixture of people came to the defence of Pastor James McConnell, the Belfast preacher who was acquitted this weekafter being prosecuted for disseminating “grossly offensive” material—in this case a sermon, transmitted over the internet, in which he described Islam as a religion “spawned in hell”. The prosecution said its main concern was not with the pastor’s theological views but with his statement, about Muslims in general, that “I do not trust them.”

People who stepped forward to defend the 78-year-old evangelical preacher included a Catholic priest (which is remarkable enough in Northern Irish terms) and a London-based imam who was understood to be willing to say in court that he understood the preacher’s wariness of Muslims, given the hard-line political ideology which some of his co-religionists had embraced. In the end, the judge said the imam’s testimony would not add to his knowledge of the case.

Stephen Evans, campaign manager of Britain’s National Secular Society, hailed the acquittal as a “welcome reassertion of the fundamental right to freedom of expression.” He added: “While we and many others disagree strongly with the tone and contents of the pastor’s remarks, a heartening and broad coalition of groups have stood up for his right to express his views.”

Meanwhile Raied Al-Wazzan, the Belfast-based Muslim who triggered the prosecution by complaining about the pastor’s remarks, said yesterday he would take similar action if he came across further instances of offensive speech. “I would do it again if somebody was stereotyping the Muslim community or any other community. We have lots of [Muslim] doctors and teachers working in this country and if you don’t trust them, that is going to create discrimination against them.”

The preacher said after the verdict he would “word it differently” if he was going to deliver a similar sermon in future. Mr al-Wazzan, who at one point caused a furore by praising the state of affairs created in his native Mosul by Islamic State, and then withdrawing his remark, claimed that the pastor had “learned a lesson”. He did not say whether he, in turn, felt in any way chastened by the failure of the prosecution. But he did at least offer to shake Mr McConnell’s hand if the desire, and trust, were reciprocated.