On Wednesday, three masked gunmen attacked and killed at least 12 at the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
Charlie Hebdo is known for it’s controversial covers and provocative cartoons which are known for skewering religion and politics of every stripe. This can be seen from one of the paper’s most famous covers published shortly after the paper’s offices were firebombed.
The killings today were apparently provoked by cartoons published in the paper that depicted the prophet Muhammad and that mocked the leader of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS).
Political cartoonists around the world have responded with cartoons depicting their reactions to the slayings.
It is important to remember however, as Ezra Klein at Vox points out, that we do not need to try to analyze whether the paper was being too provocative. The attack was an act of terrorism, and act of violence; not a response to a legitimate provocation.
The attacks in Paris bring back to mind the rioting and attacks the followed the publication (and re-publication) of the cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, as well as the firebombing of the Charlie Hebdo offices back in 2011, apparently in response to the publication of a characture of Muhammad. A Pew Foundation poll back in 2005/06, at the time of the response to the Danish cartoons, asked whether Americans thought that the controversy was more about “Western disrespect” or “Muslim intolerance.” Not surprisingly, Americans (by a 3-to1 margin) blamed the problems on Muslim intolerence.
You can see the latest on Twitter about the attacks and the responses to it under the hashtag #CharlieHebdo or #JeSuisCharlie (I am Charlie).
