Charlie Hebdo republishes Mohammed cartoons as suspects are put on trial for their role in the massacre 5 years ago.

The original issue that published the cartoons. Charlie Hebdo.

The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has republished the Mohammad cartoons that preceded the deadly attack on their offices while suspects in the case begin their trial. CBS News. In January of 2015, two al-Qaeda terrorists killed 11 people working in and around the Charlie Hebdo offices, including Charb, the editor of the magazine.  The brutal attack was ended after duel standoffs ended with the Charlie Hebdo shooters, the Kouachi brothers, along with massacre and hostage situation at a Jewish supermarket, committed by an ISIS associate that coordinated his attack with the brothers. Though all three suspects in the attack were killed by police, 14 additional people are standing trial for adding and abetting the attackers. The magazine republished the cartoons with the headline "Tout ça pour ça", all for this. The depiction of Mohammad is considered blasphemous to many Muslims and has inspired many terror attacks, with the Charlie Hebdo one being the most notable. 

My Comment:

As Islamic terrorism fades into the background after the defeat of ISIS, I think it's still important to note what al-Qaeda and ISIS have done. The attack on Charlie Hebdo was, at the time, one of the worst terror attacks in terms of impact, if not in terms of an actual body count. It was largely forgotten by history due to the impact of the much larger and deadlier Paris attacks that November. 

It's amazing that the attack was only five years ago and the world has changed quite a bit since then. Though there was a short period of time where people defended Charlie Hebdo, the tide against censorship has turned. Indeed, the CBS report failed to publish the actual cartoons, instead leaving them to the readers imagination and giving the terrorists an effective veto. 

In that way the attacks were largely a success. Though Charlie Hebdo has stood firm with their decision to publish these cartoons the rest of the media world has given into the demands to not publish them or any depictions of Muhammad. Indeed, you still can't find the banned episodes of South Park, for example, on any legitimate site. And you better believe that the vast majority of the media won't republish the cartoons. 

I, however, don't have a problem with these cartoons and I think we should defend Charlie Hebdo's right to publish them. I don't agree with Charlie Hebdo's actual beliefs, as from what I understand they are basically trolls and left wing trolls at that. But we should never give terrorists the hecklers veto and it's sad to me that the national news media doesn't agree. I have posted the above picture on this blog before and, if the need ever comes up again, I will do so again. I'm not Muslim so I'm not going to abide by Muslim beliefs. Period. If some Muslims are offended by it then they don't have to read it. 

I do have to say that I did learn something today. I didn't know that the Kouachi bothers coordinated so closely with Amedy Coulibaly, the ISIS attacker that held hostages at a Jewish supermarket at the same time the brothers were in their standoff. It essentially meant that the Charlie Hebdo attack was a joint operation between al-Qaeda and ISIS. Thankfully, it appeared to be a one-off as I hadn't heard of any other attacks like this where the two terror groups coordinated. 

As for the trial itself, I am mostly ignorant. I am guessing that most of the people were probably guilty of helping the terrorists and given how complicated the attack was I wouldn't be surprised if they all helped the attackers. I do hope that they are brought to justice if they are indeed guilty. 

I do have to say that despite how awful 2020 has been for a year it could have been much worse if ISIS and al-Qaeda were still active at the scale they were in 2015. Sure, we didn't have a global pandemic but for awhile there we were having almost weekly terror attacks and the scale of some of those attacks were truly harrowing. Thankfully, with ISIS defeated on the battlefield and al-Qaeda mostly irrelevant (the Charlie Hebdo attacks were mostly a last hurrah for them) the threat is a lot less severe, to the point where I would be honestly surprised if a major Islamic terror attack happens this year.