Free Republic

It’s so often the case that the best thing a person can do to improve his reputation is die. John F. Kennedy is now a legendary president, but would he be estimated so highly if he’d been able to end his political career as a man and not a myth? Ah, the power of martyrdom. And so it is with the editors and cartoonists of French magazine Charlie Hebdo (CH). In the wake of the Jan. 7 attack on its offices, millions are showing their support, heroicizing CH and saying “Je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie). On the other hand,...

Shortly after a terrorist attack left 12 dead inside a Paris magazine called Charlie Hebdo, a meme went viral. People posted a new phrase on social media, held signs with the slogan, said it again and again and again on TV: “Je Suis Charlie” — I am Charlie. The message was meant to show solidarity with those who died. And those who were murdered in cold blood were called “journalists,” therefore “Je Suis Charlie” supporters were saying, essentially, there but for the grace of God go I. They, too, could have been killed over freedom of expression. We are all...

PARIS – Tens of thousands of people including more than 40 world leaders streamed into the heart of Paris on Sunday for a rally of national unity to honor the 17 victims of three days of terror. The aftermath of the attacks remained raw, with video emerging of one of the gunmen killed during police raids pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and detailing how the attacks were going to unfold. Also, a new shooting was linked to that gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, who was killed Friday along with the brothers behind a massacre at satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in...

Attorney General Eric Holder is in Paris this week to attend a meeting on fighting terrorism, but did not participate in a march with world leaders Sunday to honor the 17 people killed last week in France. More than 40 world leaders marched arm in arm through Paris to rally for unity and freedom of expression and to honor the victims of the three days of terrorist attacks. The leaders headed a demonstration of at least tens of thousands of people who converged on the capital after three gunmen last week attacked a newspaper office, kosher supermarket and police. Among...

Fox News Channel is showing the huge rally in France. World leaders were shown boarding a bus to attend the rally. Apparently at least some of them will be giving speeches (hopefully, at least one of them will use the term RADICAL).

I am not Charlie Regarding “Massacre at French paper stuns world” (Jan. 8), the killing of 12 people at the French newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, is appalling. Hopefully, the perpetrators will soon be caught and prosecuted. The fact that 12 people are dead over cartoons by white, male cartoonists is horrible. Free speech is an important part of our society and criticism of Charlie Hebdo cartoons is also speech. But no one should be killed over cartoons. However, the statement “Je Suis Charlie” (I Am Charlie) ignores the magazine’s history of xenophobia, racism, sexism and homophobia. I sympathize with the victims’...

Ever since a Danish newspaper drew death threats and incited protests by publishing cartoons satirizing the prophet Muhammad in 2005, American news organization have wrestled with a question: to publish or not to publish the offending, if clearly newsworthy, cartoons? The issue came roaring back Wednesday with the attack on a satirical Paris publication that had republished the Danish cartoons and created its own in the face of violent threats from Muslim extremists. The attack by three gunmen on the publication, Charlie Hebdo, left 12 people dead, including its editor, Stéphane Charbonnier, who once defiantly posed with a copy of...

At a time when American media outlets blurred out the Mohammed cartoons as if they were obscene and the Obama administration sent the man behind a Mohammed movie trailer to jail for offending Muslims, France’s Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine continued to defy Muslim Supremacism by drawing its own Mohammed cartoons. Despite attacks and numerous threats, they did not desist.