Charlie Hebdo, the French satire weekly newspaper, has been the target of Islamists for years.
Death threats have been leveled numerous times at staff members. In 2011, their offices
were firebombed because some Muslims were offended by the "Charia Hebdo" Islam edition. This is the same magazine
that re-published in 2006 the Danish Mohammed cartoons that caused such a firestorm throughout the Muslim world.
Back in 2007, I wrote:
On February 9, 2006, Charlie Hebdo, a french satirical (mostly left-wing) political weekly, had the guts to re-publish the Danish Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons, along with several of their own, in response to the violent, over-reaction of the Islamic world to their initial publication, and the ensuing arguments about what might or might not constitute freedom of expression. Splashed on the front page was a cartoon of Mohammed with the caption "C'est dur d'être aimé par des cons" (It's hard to be loved by idiots), and entitled "Mahomet débordé par les intégristes" (Mohammed is overwhelmed by fundamentalists). And although the point of republishing the cartoons was to express solidarity with the ideals of 'freedom of speech', and to illustrate how Islam has been hijacked by extremists, the Muslim world, as a whole, chose to view it as a personal and religious affront.
Well, they finally made good on those threats, and now 12 people are dead, including 2 policemen. The first one killed was a police guard who had been guarding the Hebdo offices in Paris after all those death threats. A 2nd policeman responding to the shooting was also killed, along with 8 journalists. Stéphane Charbonnier, aka Charb, cartoonist and editorial director of Charlie Hebdo was one of the victims.
One of the
3 masked suspects has surrendered. He's 18. Two brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi are still at large. Armed and dangerous.
One of the witnesses said:
“About half an hour ago, two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs,” the witness, Benoît Bringer, told the station. “A few minutes later, we heard lots of shots.” He added that the men were then seen fleeing the building.
According to the police:
Xavier Castaing, a police spokesman, said that three armed, masked men forced their way into the offices, firing indiscriminately at people in the lobby and wounding many. He said that they were carrying AK-47 rifles, and that the attack lasted several minutes before the assailants fled by car.
News reports said the gunmen shot at the police outside the building as they escaped. Several journalists sought safety on the roof of the building during the attack.
There are eleven wounded, some critical.
Over the years Charlie Hebdo lampooned everything from politics (both left and right) to religion, including Christianity, with no acts of violence from any group other than the perpetually offended Muslims. They murdered 12 innocent people because of some cartoons and words.
Rest in peace:
Charb,
Jean Cabut
Georges Wolinski
Bernard Verlhac
and the others who were mercilessly gunned down.
#JeSuisCharlie
More
info here, and
here.
And in honor of Charb and the others, I am reposting the MoToons.
