We are Charlie

Can’t sleep tonight, thoughts with my French cartooning colleagues, their families and loved ones #CharlieHebdo

On January 7, at 11:30 AM in Paris France, three gunmen ententered the building two doors down from the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a famous French cartoonist office known for stirring lots of emotions with their controversial cartoons. The men had the wrong address and took a postal worker and another worker hostage and forced them to sit and ask in the building where the office of Charlie Hebdo was. They went to the correct place and then killed a security officer (a Muslim security officer).

A Charlie Hebdo female cartoonist, Corinne Rey, was taken hostage and forced to take the three guys to the office of Charlie Hebdo. She tried to take them to the wrong floor but the men caught on and she was forced to take them to the correct floor. Rey hid under a desk while the men started killing people. They were about to shoot one woman in the head but told her they would let her live since she was a a woman but that she needed to read the Quran. The men were screaming “Allahu Akbar” and “You will pay because you insulted the propet” as they shot up people.

#CharlieHebdo

Why were these terrorists so angry at the cartoonists that worked at the Charles Hebdo office?

Several of the cartoonists routinely insulted the Islamic fatith by depicting their prophet, Muhammad, in an ulflattering light by making fun of him. The cartoonists not only targeted the Islamic faith, but also made fun of others such as Jesus and the Pope. According to cartoonists, everyone was “fair game.”

The editor in chief, Stephane Charbonnier said “Muhammad isn’t sacred to me. I don’t blame Muslims for not laughing at our drawings. I live under French law. I don’t live under Quarnic law. I don’t have kids, no wife, no car, no credit. Maybe it is a little pompous to say but I would rather die standing than live on my knees.”

The Telegraph ✔ @Telegraph Follow

Tomorrow’s Matt cartoon http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/ #CharlieHebdo

3:58 PM – 7 Jan 2015

I first want to give the definition of terrorism by dictionary.com

terrorism definition

Acts of violence committed by groups that view themselves as victimized by some notable historical wrong. Although these groups have no formal connection with governments, they usually have the financial and moral backing of sympathetic governments. Typically, they stage unexpected attacks on civilian targets, including embassies and airliners, with the aim of sowing fear and confusion. Israel has been a frequent target of terrorism, but the United States has increasingly become its main target.

I taught Social Studies for twelve years. When teaching my students about “terrorism,” I stressed that terrorist use the tactic of complete surprise attacks usually on civilian targets. You have innocent people trying to live peacefully and BAM they are dead because someone decided that they needed to pay for something that they had no involvement in. You could be taking your wonderful family to Disney World and BAM, your entire family is dead on an airplane, because a terrorist has decided that they must make a statement. How many innocent Muslims were killed on 9/11 because of this insanity?

Karen Attiah ✔ @KarenAttiah Follow

Tomorrow’s cartoon from @washingtonpost cartoonist Tom Toles: http://wapo.st/1rowW5N #CharlieHebdo #JeSuisCharlie

One of the founding priciples of our country is freedom of speech and press. The same goes in France. You don’t have to always agree and like what people say, but people have the freedom to say it. In the United States, the Bill of Rights was never intended to protect popular speech, but instead more intended to protect unpopular sentiments. For example, most Americans feel strongly that the American flag should not be burned. However, the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 in Texas V. Johnson that Americans are free to burn the American flag to express their discontent with the US government.

Quartz India ✔ @qzindia Follow

Cartoon: The scales of justice after Charlie Hebdo http://qz.com/323002

Christa: I do not personally like the fact that religious subjects are being made fun of in political cartoons. I think it is disrespectful. I don’t have to read them or look at them. One of the most disgusting groups in America is the KKK. They are horrible. I don’t have to join them or do anything to contribute to their terrible organization. In America, we have the freedom to say and write what we want as long as it does not hurt another person. We live in a free country. The United States needs to crack down on keeping these terrorists out of our country and off of our airplanes. I should be able to not worry about some woman or man on a “tourist visa” blowing me up. I am sad that there are these terrorists who are doing this in the name of Islam, when there are so many Muslims who are so kind and are angry that these terrorists are saying that the are Muslim. It is not fair to them that their religion is being fasly represented. Can’t we all just get along?

Corrin: I agree with Christa’s sentiments. I’m troubled by how fanatical these terrorists are. Everyone who was old enough to experience 9/11 remember that the day before we all had an innocence to our lives. The terrorists attack on our county changed that. I personally feel that one of the biggest problems after 9/11 is that it appeared you did not have a loud presence of peaceful Muslims speaking up to condone this barbaric behavior. I’m not saying they weren’t against it or that they didn’t care, I’m saying that as an organized religion, they needed to blast this behavior. Instead, many were quiet and unfortunately became targets. For thousands of years people have been dying in the name of religion. However, I truly believe we all (Christians, Muslims, Jews) worship the SAME God! We call him God, Jews call him Yaweh, and Muslims call him Allah. When we die and meet our maker, we will have to account for all of our bad behaviors. This goes from evil terrorists who shoot up newspaper offices, to preachers and others who gay bash and preach hate.