Charlie Hebdo- Muslims Make Good On Threats To Kill Journalists "Charb" killed. #JeSuisCharlie

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.

Offices of Charlie Hebdo Firebombed Over 'Charia Hebdo" Islam Edition

Charlie Hebdo is back in the headlines again.  In 2007, the far-left, French satirical weekly took major heat for re-publishing the Danish Jyllands-Posten 'Mo-toons', and posting on the front page a cartoon of Mohammad with the caption "It's hard to be loved by idiots" in French. As a result, publisher Philippe Val was sued by the Paris Grand Mosque and the Union of French Islamic Organizations for racism. A staunch supporter of Israel, the lefty Val won that lawsuit.

The latest with Charlie Hebdo came the day it was due to publish its latest weekly edition skewering Islamic Shariah law.  The name Charlie was replaced with Charia, Prophet Mohammad listed as guest Editor-In-Chief,  captioned with "100 lashes if you don't die of laughter" and dedicated to the Arab Spring.

This time, no-one was going to wait to lose a lawsuit, so in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday November 2,  the offices of Charlie Hebdo were firebombed, and their website was hacked. Apparently, there was a photo of Mecca and "No God But Allah" along with messages in Turkish and English. But as of today, there are just the words "it works!",  on the screen. Whatever that's supposed to mean.

There are, of course, those dhimmis who condemn Charlie Hebdo for provoking Muslims, like Romina Ruiz-Goiriena of France24 in her Huffington Post article.

By definition, satire is based on the premise that however serious the subject, it can achieve a greater effect if a society's follies are held to ridicule. The greater purpose is constructive criticism. However, the Charia Hebdo number did everything to scorn the Arab Spring abroad and nothing to contest French clichés and institutional racism against Muslims.



The issue was not thought-provoking; it simply contributed to burgeoning anti-Muslim sentiment. What it should have been doing was pushing the conversation forward to confront the seemingly dormant but rampant institutional bigotry. After all, is that not the point of having a free press tradition in the first place?

An extremely angry editor, Stéphane Charbonnier (Charb), said that

"The arsonist didn't read this magazine -- no one knows what's in this magazine except for the ones who will buy it this morning.  People acted violently over a magazine where they don't even know the content. This is what is most deviant and dumb."

But Muslims who commit these kinds of violent acts don't think before reacting. They just lash out because it's the only thing they know, and people are intimidated enough to give them reason to continue acting out. Granted, many in the Muslim community have condemned the violence, but there's something fundamentally wrong when your adherents find no other recourse but to resort to threats and violent pursuits.

Back in 2006 Jacques Chirac was highly critical of  Charlie Hebdo for the Mo-Toons publication, which he claimed was  "overt provocation" adding,

"Anything that can hurt the convictions of someone else, in particular religious convictions, should be avoided."

The current government, however, values freedom of speech and fully supports the magazine. Interior Minister Claude Gueant said

"The freedom of the press is a sacred freedom for French people. Everything will be done to find the perpetrators of this attack."

The  mayor of Paris said it best,

"We may not agree with this week's edition of Charlie Hebdo, but we are in a society that needs freedom of expression, and any violence that undermines this freedom... is absolutely unacceptable."

If we continue to allow violence or the threat of violence to dictate how we conduct our lives, we might as well lock ourselves up and throw away the key.