I am Charlie

On January 7th there was an attack on a french satirical newspaper centered in Paris called Charlie Hebdo. The newspaper is famous for its satire of major political and religious leaders around the world, but some extremists didn't take some of these jibes lightly. The paper has a history of violent retaliation to their publications (a history seen in detail here) however the most recent attack on the paper has been the worst.

January 7th 12 people at Charlie Hebdo's offices were killed including 2 police officers and an editor, likely in response to this cartoon-

The man in white is saying, "I am the prophet Mohammed and the Man in black (supposedly a member of the Islamic State Group) is beheading him and saying "Shut up infidel." The cartoon is touching on the fact that the so called "Islamic State" is hurting the image of the islamic religion internationally by taking that name but not representing the majority of Muslims around the world. The cartoon is not propaganda. If anything it is making an effort to defend Muslims not represented by ISIS's radical views. An editor for Charlie Hebdo, Gerard Biard said in response to the attack, "I don't understand how people can attack a newspaper with heavy weapons. A newspaper is not a weapon of war." Contrary to its evident intention to attack Western ideology, this act of terrorism is an attack on freedom of press internationally. In the attack on Charlie Hebdo in one of the worlds most major cities, terrorists are threatening the press internationally. This attack parallels the decapitation of journalists in September of 2014, also by IS. Even if, like this cartoon, the argument is in favor of the non-violent and the majority, the press is now afraid to slight the Islamic State. The world has to treat this threat as it did before, not with fear but with strenth.