Terrorist attack in a cartoonist office in Paris leaves at least 17 dead

[Xiahou Ba]

It's been going on in the news for a while (with some of our users placing black "Je Suis Charlie" protests on their profiles), so I feel we should at least mention it here on the Marioboards.

A cartoonist office who is in charge of a magazine called Charlie Hebdo got attacked by Islamic terrorists because of their, rather shocking, depictions of Muhammed. For some background information, Charlie Hebdo is a left-wing French satirical magazine that enjoys poking fun at religion and satirizes it in general, and they don't simply target Muhammed or Islam. They had been firebombed in the past for one of their covers; in January 7, 2015 masked terrorists went inside the building and killed several people, including well-known cartoonists and editors.

Some more information here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hebdo_shooting

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/08/europe/charlie-hebdo-attack-timeline/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/07/charlie-hebdo-cartoons-paris-french-newspaper-shooting_n_6429552.html

I offer my condolences to the victims of the attack and I see this as an attempt to stifle our right to free speech and criticize several aspects of our society as a whole without fear of death. Je suis Charlie.

 

[Dr. Javelin]

unlike north korea, who never actually backs up any of their threats, this is serious anti-free speech stuff

 

[Cirdec]

That attack actually happened in January 7. Very sad, we are all touched in France and I hope nothing like this will ever happen again.

 

[Dr. Javelin]

also just so you guys know there's a good number of americans that are pissed off the us didn't send anyone more important than our ambassador to the rally in paris

 

[Zae]

Ugh, terrorist attacks

not a subject i like hearing, i just hope something can be done against next time.

I think ill just pray for paris too, since its in pretty big need.

 

[Xiahou Ba]

That attack actually happened in January 7.

Thanks for correcting me

 

[Xiahou Dun]

That attack actually happened in January 7. Very sad, we are all touched in France and I hope nothing like this will ever happen again.

I don't live in France, but this was something my French mother was talking about all day.

Here are some covers that somehow "justified" the terrorist's attack.

Spoiler

Some other covers can't be posted in the forum due to their provocative nature for most viewers in the forum (naked people, genitalia, topless women, people sodomizing), but you can do a simple Google search (remember, the stuff can be inappropriate to some but please consider the different French cultural norms) and get a clue of how they depict satire.

also just so you guys know there's a good number of americans that are pissed off the us didn't send anyone more important than our ambassador to the rally in paris

If there's any depiction that the French are cowards, this tragedy certainly is the case against it. When it comes to biting satire, Americans look like wusses. A lot of media in the U.S. have refused to show covers from the cartoons due to their provocative nature, that they don't want to offend a few, but I think it's just self-censorship out of cowardice.

Here are what some cartoonists have responded to this attack.

Spoiler

Please, I hope nobody in this forum says along the lines of "they were provoking the terrorists, they knew that it was coming, they deserved it" if that happens, that person is an asshole. You don't justify violence on anything, especially on cartoonists.

 

[IcicleRain]

it's worth noting that no politicians from opposing political groups to the one in charge were invited to the "unity" marches

 

[Glitchy Bowser Jr.]

I was wondering why some people had "Je Suis Charlie" in their profile. This is tragic and they completely didn't deserve to be attacked like that.

 

[Stargazing]

Here are what some cartoonists have responded to this attack.

Spoiler