Being Charlie 4

The satirical weekly has courted controversy in the past with its irreverent take on news and current affairs.The attack on the office got word and cartoon victims of the past defending the magazines right to mock or caricature other people.

“Those who committed these acts have nothing to do with Islam.“

said the very often by the weekly attacked French president Francois Hollande addressed the nation from the Elysée, congratulating police and saying the nation must not give in to such a “terrifying antisemitic attack” like the one on the grocery store in Vincennes on Friday.

This shooting of extreme violence killed 12 people and injured several more. Greatly talented cartoonists, courageous journalists are dead. They left their mark on generations and generations of French people through their influence, through their insolence and through their rare independence.
I want to tell them that we will continue to defend this message, this message of freedom, in their name. This cowardly attack also killed two police officers, the same who were responsible for protecting Charlie Hebdo and the editorial staff of this newspaper, who were threatened for years and who defended freedom of expression.
These men and women died for the idea they had of France. That is to say, freedom.

Today they are our heroes, and that is why I have decreed that tomorrow will be a day of national mourning. At 12:00, there will be a moment of contemplation across public services, and I invite all the population to take part in it. The flags will be half-mast for three days.

“We are a free nation that does not give in,”

“We need to show our determination against anything and everything that can divide us. We should be firm against racism and antisemitism,”

“Unity is our best weapon.”

On Friday a kosher grocery store was under seige in Porte de Vincennes, eastern Paris. Amedy Coulibaly was the gunman involved and was believed to be behind the murder of the policewoman yesterday. During that attack, a traffic warden was seriously injured. The gunman who was shot dead by Paris police. Seven people, including three police, were hurt in the supermarket raid in Vincennes with officers carrying some of the terrified hostages clear from the scene in their arms.

Four hostages and the gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, died in the attack. He had taken hold of the grocery at around 12.20 local time. He was a close friend of Cherif Kourachi, and his demand to hostage negotiators was that the Kouachi brothers – Said, 34, and Cherif, 32, who were holding one man hostage at a print works – be ‘freed’ .”

Three days of terrorist violence in France came to an end late on Friday afternoon when security forces launched two simultaneous assault operations. Four hostages died in the siege in the kosher Jewish supermarket at Porte de Vincennes in Paris. The suspected terrorist gunman Amedy Coulibaly was killed as he fired on the police officers when they broke into the shop. {France terror sieges end in bloodshed}

French President François Hollande followed Friday’s events from the situation room in the Élysée Palace and delivered a televised address to the French nation.

“The call for unity, which I expressed earlier is our greatest weapon. Those who carried out these attacks, the terrorists, the madmen, these fanatics have nothing to do with the Muslim religion. Finally we must mobilise and be able to respond to such events by force if and when we have to.”

Hollande says that numerous state leaders from around the world have expressed their solidarity with France.

“They will be here on Sunday. I will be with them. I call on all French men and women to get up together this Sunday to demonstrate the values of democracy, liberty and pluralism.

British prime minister David Cameron, German chancellor Angela Merkel and EU president Donald Tusk all said they would accept Hollande’s invitation. Barack Obama said Paris’s spirit of freedom

“will endure forever, long after the scourge of terrorism is banished from this world”.

Hollande not wanting to give in to terrorism

“We are a free nation that does not give in. We carry an ideal that is greater than us.”

The National Front of Marine Le Pen is not welcome at the national march next Sunday in Paris, reported the spokesman of the Partie Socialiste Carlos da Silva on BFM TV.

“The National Front has proven many times that it does not support the values of the Republic.”

said da Silva.

It was incredible how in the few hours social media got so many people together in several places throughout West Europe, but also in Turkey Thursday evening there was a demonstration by Turks in support of the ideals of Charlie Hebdo in Istanbul’s Taksim Square.

Photos of the mobilizations throughout France and the world.

Everywhere we saw people carrying a sign with “Je suis Charlie” or with this phrase in their own language.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said the attack was a

“challenge to our security” and “threat to our values”.

Tributes have been paid to the victims during vigils in the UK and France, while flags were flown at half-mast, including those at Downing Street and Whitehall, on Thursday. Most leaders of European countries said that Press freedom is an essential part of democratic societies., which we do have to protect.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Merkel’s coalition allies the Social Democratic Party (SPD) said that

“such an act of terror in the heart of one of our European cities against representatives of a free and critical press is abhorrent.

“This is a frontal attack on our European values and the freedom of our societies, which we must oppose together with all our strength.

Civil society organizations were also quick to react to the tragedy, with the Turkish Community in Germany (TGD) condemning the attack “in the harshest terms”

“Criminals who justify their brutal murders and attacks with a religion are just as much murderers as criminals with other motives. Terror and violence in the name of a religion are just as unacceptable as racism, discrimination and exclusion,” the TGD added.

President of the Munich Islamic Forum Imam Benjamin Idriz called the attack on Charlie Hebdo

“the most serious form of blasphemy”

whose perpetrators

“don’t belong in Europe and don’t belong in Islam”.

The Prophet Mohammed would

“distance himself from such barbaric acts and judge them most harshly”,

he said, adding that freedom of expression should be as strongly protected as freedom of religion.{Merkel condemns ‘despicable’ Paris attack}

The deaths of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists particularly shocked their counterparts at the Turkish satirical magazine Leman. Leman’s Managing Editor Zafer Aknar pointed out the irony that Charlie Hebdo has been such a full-on critic of western governments.

He told euronews:

“They were hardcore opposition. They directed their strongest criticism at their own society and political system. But people are not aware of that. They just picked up on one thing and focused on that. Why don’t you look at what else they did? About 80 to 90 percent of their cartoons were against their own government. Did Charlie Hebdo support the occupation in Iraq or Libya? Did they support the French action in Libya even once? Which war did they support? If we in Turkey did what they did to their society, we wouldn’t even be able to walk about in public.” {Turkish satire magazine Leman pays tribute to erstwhile Charlie Hebdo colleagues}

Sir Peter Fahy, vice-president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said French officers died “protecting free speech”.

MPs, peers and parliamentary staff gathered in Westminster Hall to pay respect – Photo Agence Press

AFP reportedthat a top official Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has threatened France with fresh attacks.

Harith al-Nadhari is quoted in a video saying:

“It is better for you to stop your aggression against the Muslims, so perhaps you will live safely. If you refuse but to wage war, then wait for the glad tiding,”

Former Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, “terribly hurt” by the event, has in his New Year’s speech expressed his horror at the attack in Paris and postponed his New Year’s speech with a week off to bring a tribute to freedom of expression. The PS New Year reception began with a minute of silence for the victims.

Di Rupo said :

“This attack must not divide us, as the perpetrators would like. It must bring us together, uniting us against the threats and hatred. We must do everything possible to eradicate this fanaticism.”

Like any major politician him having also been the spot of some cartoons, he hopes that Charlie Hebdo persists.

“This paper must continue to do its job (…) I am convinced that the solidarity of citizens and organizations in France and abroad, can provide a relaunch of the magazine.”

Yet, according to Di Rupo the freedom of expression could possibly be the biggest victim of this day.

“Everyone has the right to speak out freely and everyone should accept that his beliefs are questioned. If we abandon this principle, we bury democracy,”

he warned and after his speech he asked to demonstrate with one minute of noise in honour for those who were silenced.

Right wing N-VA chairman Bart De Wever said:

“Horrible, cowardly assassination and attack on freedom of expression. Thoughts to all the victims, their families.”

Secretary of State Bart Tommelein (VLD) calls the attack horrible and degrading.

“That people can do this to other people is shocking.”

Minister Jan Jambon (N-VA) said:

“For these acts of terror there are no words.”

Also Flemish Socialist Party party leader John Crombez was “stunned and shocked,” just as a parliamentarian Freya Van den Bossche (SP.A) who said

“So many things happen that you can not actually believe and you do not want to believe now again.”

Flemish Media Minister Sven Gatz (Open VLD) called free speech, free media and humor “essential for a democracy.”

Attack on free press and attack on democracy says minister Kris Peeters

For Minister Kris Peeters this is an attack on free press and an attack on democracy.

Unacceptable and shocking. Deep sympathy to all concerned.

For Prime Minister Charles Michel

We must not allow ourselves to be intimidated. All democrats must stand shoulder to shoulder not giving terror a chance.

Belgium MFA, Minute of silence at the Foreign Ministry in memory of the victims of the attack against Charlie Hebdo

CD & V Chairman Wouter Beke also finds

“An attack on press freedom is an attack on the heart of every society.”

The British Queen also sent her prayers to the victims of the Wednesday tragedy. She said:

‘Prince Philip and I send our sincere condolences to the families of those who have been killed and to those who have been injured in the attack in Paris this morning.’

Speaking in the Commons earlier Mrs May said the ‘appalling’ attack in Paris highlighted the threat Britain faces.

‘We stand with the French people at this time for freedom of speech and democracy and against terror and our thoughts and sympathies are with the families, friends and colleagues of the victims.’

Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, has painted a pretty grim picture of the country’s plight in an interview with MFMTV.

“We have never known of simultaneous attacks within three days, it is a schock. We are at war with terrorism in France, we are having to cope with a major challenge.

On Saturday morning the first signs of a backlash came in, with the German far right planning a rally in Dresden by a group calling itself “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident” asking marchers to wear black armbands and observe a minute’s silence for “the victims of terrorism in Paris”. It will add to fears of the wave of jihadist attacks across the world leading to increasing polarisation.

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Preceding articles:

Being Charlie 1

Being Charlie 2

Being Charlie 3

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1. Satirical French mag rethinks approach to Islam
2. Charlie Hebdo: UK steps up security after Paris attack
3. Merkel condemns ‘despicable’ Paris attack
4. Newspapers around the world react to Charlie Hebdo attack
5. François Hollande reassures French nation after three terrorists shot dead by police
6. Di Rupo: “Dit fanatisme moet uitgeroeid”
7. Di Rupo: “Na onze minuut stilte maken we nu een minuut lawaai”
8. Aanslag Charlie Hebdo: politici reageren met ‘afschuw’, maar ook met ‘angst’

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Related articles

• Far-right Le Pen demands to join France’s march of unity (thetimes.co.uk)
  French unity in the face of Islamist murder cracked open today when Marine Le Pen, leader of the hard-right National Front, accused President Hollande’s administration of insulting the victims by excluding her from a national solidarity march on Sunday.
• François Hollande reassures French nation after three terrorists shot dead by police (onenewspage.us)
  French President François Hollande followed Friday’s events from the situation room in the Élysée Palace and delivered a televised address to the French nation.
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  On Sunday a major rally will take place in Paris attended by a number of European leaders including British Prime David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
• Hollande: ‘France Has Stood Up’ (wsj.com) (video)
  French President François Hollande addressed the nation from Élysée Palace after police raids ended two hostage standoffs, killing three gunmen.
• Paris Mourns and Remembers as Eiffel Tower Goes Dark (netnewsledger.com)

  Tonight Mayor Anne Hidalgo said, “To mark its solidarity with the victims, and the total condemnation of this attack. With all elected representatives of Paris, I call on all Republicans and freedom advocates to gather in contemplation, solidarity and silently , Republic Square, Thursday at 18pm.”

  “France is heart-stricken, every French citizen is horrified”, Manuel Valls declared following the terrorist attack on the office of newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris on 7 January 2015. The President of the Republic held a meeting with the ministers and officials directly concerned by the protection of the French people at 2pm at the Elysée Palace. The Prime Minister has  increased the Vigipirate plan to “attack alert” level in the Île-de-France region.

• Top al-Qaida terrorist linked to killers, fuelling theory of orchestrated mission (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)
  Questions are being asked about how the attackers, who had been on the radar of the intelligence services, managed to build up an arsenal of automatic rifles and explosives.Beghal, described as wielding huge influence over a close-knit group of disaffected young Muslims, was suspected of recruiting the shoe bomber Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the “20th hijacker” in the 9/11 attacks. He had at times taken the nom de guerre of Abu Hamza, the formerly London-based cleric who was extradited to the US and convicted yesterday of 11 charges of instigating acts of terrorism.

  Beghal was frequently seen at the cleric’s Finsbury Park mosque in north London where he also met Abu Qatada, who was described as Osama bin Laden’s emissary in Europe.

• Paris shootings: Attackers’ roots in jihadist group that met in a Paris park (telegraph.co.uk)
  All three jihadists were members of the Buttes-Chaumont network of extremists that would gather in the Parisian park of the same name in the 19th arrondissement in the east of the city.The network radicalised youngsters into militant Islam and during the early 2000s sent several to fight in Iraq. Like the Kouachi brothers, Coulibaly was also an associate of Djamel Beghal, an al-Qaeda terrorist once based at Finsbury Park Mosque, north London, where he learnt at the feet of Abu Hamza — who was sentenced in the United States to life for terrorism on Friday.