{"id":3563,"date":"2015-01-07T14:48:42","date_gmt":"2015-01-07T20:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=3563"},"modified":"2015-01-07T14:48:42","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T20:48:42","slug":"the-controversial-cartoons-that-are-said-to-have-inspired-the-terrorist-attack-against-charlie-hebdo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/the-controversial-cartoons-that-are-said-to-have-inspired-the-terrorist-attack-against-charlie-hebdo\/","title":{"rendered":"The Controversial Cartoons That Are Said To Have Inspired The Terrorist Attack Against Charlie Hebdo"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Jessica Goldstein<\/a>, Think Progress
\nclick here for original article<\/a><\/p>\n

At least 12 people were killed in a shooting at the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo Wednesday morning. Multiple masked gunman entered the building, opened fire on the writers, and escaped in a getaway car. The shooters reportedly yelled \u201cAllahu Akhbar\u201d (\u201cGod is greatest\u201d) during the assault and \u201cWe have avenged the prophet\u201d as they sped out of the office. Among the confirmed dead are two police officers and Stephane Charbonnier, a journalist and editorial director. French President Francois Hollande has called the shooting \u201ca terrorist attack.\u201d The gunmen and driver are still at large.<\/p>\n

The French Muslim community has condemned the attack. Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Great Mosque of Paris,\u00a0announced on behalf of French Muslims<\/a>, \u201cI want to denounce the horror and the unspeakable and show our compassion. We condemn what just [happened] in the name of all Muslims. This is an act of war in the middle of Paris. \u201c<\/p>\n

Chances are, if you\u2019ve heard of Charlie Hebdo before, it has been because their satire has inspired the ire of Islamic extremists; the target of the magazine\u2019s humor is frequently religious, political and social mores.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/em>\u2018s\u00a0Anne Penketh reported from Paris<\/a>\u00a0that the magazine\u2019s latest cover (featured in the most recent tweet from @Charlie_Hebdo_) took aim at Islam:<\/p>\n

The weekly\u2019s latest jibe, published on Twitter moments before the terrorist attack, was a cartoon wishing a Happy New Year \u2018and particularly good health\u2019 to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic militant group Islamic State (Isis).<\/p>\n

The magazine describes itself on the social network as the \u2018irresponsible newspaper\u2019. Its cover this week features the provocative new novel by Michel Houellebecq, Submission, which satirises France under a Muslim president.<\/p>\n

Charlie Hebdo\u2019s editor, St\u00e9phane Charbonnier, has received death threats and lives under police protection. He has always insisted that the cartoons depicting the Prophet were harmless fun, although he is well aware that Islam does not allow public images of Muhammad, which are believed by Muslims to be sacrilegious.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today is an extreme case of horror, but it\u2019s not Charlie Hebdo\u2019s first experience with violence.<\/p>\n

The offices were firebombed in late 2011, after running a spoof issue \u201cguest edited\u201d by the Prophet Muhammad honoring an Islamist party\u2019s victory in Tunisian elections. The special issue, in a winking reference to \u201cShariah law,\u201d was named \u201cCharia Hebdo,\u201d and showed a cartoon of Muhammad along with the line, \u201c100 lashes if you don\u2019t die of laughter.\u201d At the time, editor Stephane Charbonnier\u00a0described the post-attack wreckage of the office<\/a>: \u201cWe can\u2019t put out the magazine under these conditions. The stocks are burned, smoke is everywhere, the paste-up board is unusable, everything is melted, there\u2019s no more electricity.\u201d The website was also hacked, and members of the staff received death threats.<\/p>\n

\"Charlie-Hebdo<\/p>\n

Less than a week later, the magazine\u2019s front page read \u201cL\u2019Amour plus fort que la haine\u201d (Love is stronger than hate) and showed a male Charlie Hebdo cartoonist and a bearded Muslim man engaged in a kiss, the still-smoking magazine Charlie Hebdo offices burning in the background.<\/p>\n

In 2012, the magazine included multiple caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in which he appeared naked; one was called \u201cMohammad: a star is born,\u201d and showed a man bent over so his beard was the only thing covering the lower half of his body. The cover depicted Mohammad in a wheelchair being pushed by an Orthodox Jew.<\/p>\n

\"rsz_charlie-hedbo-18-sept-2012<\/div>\n

The French government implored the magazine not to publish the issue \u2014 at the time, protests over a prophet-mocking video produced in the U.S., \u201cThe Innocence of Muslims,\u201d were raging across South Asia and the Middle East \u2014 but Charlie Hebdo persisted; the government shut down schools, consulates, cultural centers and embassies in 20 counties as a precautionary measure. Riot police were also stationed at the Charlie Hebdo offices for protection.<\/p>\n

The then-editor-in-chief, G\u00e9rard Biard,\u00a0did not back down<\/a>\u00a0from the magazine\u2019s call to publish the issue. \u201cWe\u2019re a newspaper that respects French law. Now, if there\u2019s a law that is different in Kabul or Riyadh, we\u2019re not going to bother ourselves with respecting it. What are we supposed to do when there\u2019s news like this?\u201d Biard went on to describe the magazine as \u201catheist,\u201d \u201cdemocratic,\u201d and a supporter of \u201cla\u00efcit\u00e9,\u201d France\u2019s secularity.<\/p>\n

Charlie Hebdo republished cartoons of Mohammad in 2006 that had originally appeared in a Danish newspaper; the images sparked protests throughout the Muslim community.<\/p>\n

Charlie Hebdo\u2019s history of taboo-challenging content is as old as the magazine itself. Its earlier form, Hara-Kiri Hebdo,\u00a0was banned in 1970<\/a>\u00a0for spoofing what they saw as the too-deferential coverage of former president Charles de Gaulle\u2019s death by the French media. Editors picked Charlie Hebdo as a new name to get around the ban; the new title jokingly referenced both de Gaulle and a monthly comic book, Charlie Mensuel, which got its name from Charlie Brown.<\/p>\n

The magazine, which comes out every Wednesday, came on the scene in 1969; it folded in 1981 due to poor sales but was revived 11 years later. Charbonnier, one of today\u2019s victims, had held his post as editor in chief since 2012. This is reportedly his last cartoon:<\/p>\n


\n