Terrorists want us to be afraid – we should not bend to their will

On the day after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo we queued to buy the survivors issue, defiant in the face of terror - a year on we shudder when taking the tube

French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo's publisher, Stéphane Charbonnier, known as Charb, at the magazine's headquarters in Paris on 19 September 2012. (FRED DUFOUR/AFP/GettyImages)

Exactly one year ago today, Britain froze as it took in the horror sweeping Paris, when terrorists attacked cartoonists at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and locals at a kosher supermarket.

The ‘survivor's’ issue of Hebdo, published one week later, sold all of the almost eight million copies it produced – compared to its usual print run of 60,000. We lined up outside newsagents - despite warnings - to buy copies and mark the day with an act of defiance.

We swiftly turned our panic, fear and confusion into a staunch stubbornness to continue enjoying our freedoms, uniting us with the French. We stood up for freedom of speech, expression and the right to offend.

But one year on, the mood has changed – and at a pace that is disproportionate to any increase in risk we face.

While the year started with defiance, it ended with politicians’ hysteric declarations of war against Isis and higher-than-usual numbers of on-duty police officers across European cities in case of a terrorist attack.

A few days ago an ex-counter terrorism minister advised us against wearing headphones and using our phones on public transport so we can spot a potential terror attack.

The public has reacted, too, by avoiding busy areas due to fear of attacks.

It’s easy to see why; faceless men with rifles and a love of death capture our imaginations much more than the mundane threats to our existence ever could. And the hysteric warnings don’t exactly help.

We don’t avoid roads because of the risk of death, but it has become normal to descend onto the London underground with the worry about an attack in the back of our minds.

Of course we should be vigilant. But not so much that it stops us from doing anything, or takes up our thoughts. There are fewer terrorist attacks on western soil now than there were in the 1970s.

After each terrorist attack, we become staunchly aware of the importance of not giving the terrorists what they want. But then the initial shock fades away and the low level hum of paranoia leads to an unconscious shift in what we see as normal.

It’s our courage, strength and inexorable love of life that these terrorists loathe. In the latest propaganda video from Isis, a masked man with a British accent said to Prime Minister David Cameron that “Only an imbecile would dare to anger a people who love death the way you love your life”.

Let’s continue to celebrate our liberal freedoms. Let’s not react as they want us to, but in ways they cannot understand.