French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has reprinted the Mohammed cartoons as the trials for the 2015 Islamic terror attack begins at a Paris court this week. “We will never lie down. We will never give up,” magazine’s editor Laurent “Riss” Sourisseau wrote in its latest edition.
The Mohammed caricatures were first published by the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in 2005 and republished a year later by Charlie Hebdo, triggering violent response from angry Muslims across the world.
On January 7, 2015, two armed terrorists stormed the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, killing 12 and injuring 11 others. Two day later the terrorists struck again, this time at the Hyper Cacher Jewish supermarket, killing 4 more. The attacks were carried out in the name of the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda. French police killed the prime suspects, Cherif and Said Kouachi, after a two-day manhunt.
With the main attackers now dead, the court is trying those suspected of aiding the perpetrators. Fourteen alleged accomplices are standing trial for attacks on the offices of Charlie Hebdo offices and the Jewish supermarket.
The TV channel France24 reported the reprinting of the cartoons:
French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, the target of a massacre by Islamist gunmen in 2015, said Tuesday it was republishing hugely controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to mark this week’s start of the trial of alleged accomplices to the attack.”We will never lie down. We will never give up,” director Laurent “Riss” Sourisseau wrote in an editorial to go with the cartoons in the latest edition.”The hatred that struck us is still there and, since 2015, it has taken the time to mutate, to change its appearance, to go unnoticed and to quietly continue its ruthless crusade,” he said. (…)In the centre of the cover is a cartoon of the prophet drawn by cartoonist Jean Cabut, known as Cabu, who lost his life in the massacre.”All of this, just for that,” the front-page headline says. (…)The editorial team wrote that now was the right time to republish the cartoons and “essential” as the trial opens.”We have often been asked since January 2015 to print other caricatures of Mohammed,” it said.”We have always refused to do so, not because it is prohibited — the law allows us to do so — but because there was a need for a good reason to do it, a reason which has meaning and which brings something to the debate.”
Despite the fear of angering the Muslim world, French President Emmanuel Macron defended the right of the magazine go ahead with the publication. “It’s never the place of a president of the Republic to pass judgment on the editorial choice of a journalist or newsroom, never. Because we have freedom of the press.” Macron said. “There is in France a freedom to blaspheme which is attached to the freedom of conscience. I am here to protect all these freedoms.
Whatever criticism one may have of Macron, one must give credit where it’s due. Such defense of free speech is rare in today’s Europe. In my native Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered an investigation into a TV satirist in 2016 who “offended” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by reading a poem.
While the terror attack on Charlie Hebdo was universally condemned and Liberals across the world brandished ‘Je Suis Charlie’ placards and hashtags, very few dared to address the underlying issues of Islamic supremacy and terrorism. Those speaking up against the Ideology of Islamism, have to fear for their lives in Europe. For years, brave ex-Muslims like Ayaan Hirsi Ali in Holland and Hamed Abdel-Samad in Germany are forced to live in hiding and under constant fear of Islamic reprisal.
Shortly after the attack, Kemberlee Kaye wrote in her Legal Insurrection post: “It is incumbent upon those that speak the truth to do so bravely, unabashedly, especially in the face of evil. Truth is what Charlie Hebdo chose. The price was twelve lives.” Five years on, Europe is still in denial. Looking the other way and silencing those who speak the truth, continues to cost us many more precious lives.
France24: “We will never give up”: Charlie Hebdo republishes cartoons
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