The Charlie Hebdo Massacre


Charlie Hebdo, Assassinated: (l to r) deputy chief editor Bernard Maris, cartoonists Georges Wolinski, Jean Cabut, a.k.a. Cabu, editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier, and Bernard Verlhac, a.k.a. Tignous

The news about what happened in France today broke while I was asleep, and when I woke up I learned that most of the top editorial staff at Charlie Hebdo — including the editor-in-chief, Charb — had been wiped out in a jihad attack on their offices in Paris.

Twelve people were killed, including two police officers. Among the dead at Charlie Hebdo were deputy chief editor Bernard Maris, cartoonists Georges Wolinski and Jean Cabut, a.k.a. Cabu, Stephane Charbonnier, who is also editor-in-chief, and Bernard Verlhac, a.k.a. Tignous. A contributor, Bernard Maris, was reportedly another one of the victims.

Long-time readers will remember that Charlie Hebdo and Charb have been featured here in the past. Back in 2007, the magazine’s then-editor Philippe Val was prosecuted (unsuccessfully) for republishing the Mohammed Cartoons. Despite its progressive stance on most other topics, Charlie Hebdo continued with its “Islamophobia”, and its offices were firebombed and destroyed in 2011.

The Daily Mail has the best reportage I’ve seen so far, with a lot of photos and background information. Here’s the Mail’s introduction (hat tip Gaia):

Twelve people were killed today when gunmen carried out a massacre at the offices of a notoriously anti-Islamist newspaper in Paris – including a police officer who was executed as he begged for mercy on the pavement.

Three masked attackers brandishing Kalashnikovs burst into the Charlie Hebdo headquarters, opening fire on staff after seeking out journalists by name.

Those executed included four of the most famous cartoonists in France — men who had regularly satirised Islam and the Prophet Mohammed — including the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Stephane Charbonnier.

Witnesses said the suspect Al Qaeda killers were heard to shout ‘the Prophet has been avenged’ and ‘Allahu akbar!’ — Arabic for ‘God is great’ — as they stalked the building.

Horrific footage also emerged showing an injured police officer slumped on the pavement outside the office as two of the gunmen approach.

In an apparent desperate plea for his life, the officer is seen slowly raising his hand towards one of the attackers, who responds by callously shooting him in the head at point-blank range.

Despite a shoot-out with armed officers, the ‘calm and highly disciplined’ men who reportedly spoke perfect French were able to escape in a hijacked car and remain on the loose.

A French contact sends this note:

This was entirely predictable. Our governments are fully responsible for this mess. We pay for the lies with blood, once again. I hope this will be an eye-opener here.

This satirical newspaper is a kind of institution in France. Everyone knows it. This blow will devastate the left — Charlie Hebdo is mainly left-wing. Some of those killed were very famous writers and cartoonists.

The newspaper is actually destroyed, they killed the editing team entirely.

It was a very professional attack. No doubt about the fact those guys were trained, equipped like true jihadists.

Let Islam in and enjoy the consequences…

This CNN report exemplifies the MSM meme we can expect to develop over the next hours and days:

(CNN) Hooded, black-clad gunmen burst into the office of a provocative French satirical magazine Wednesday, killing four cartoonists and eight others before heading off onto the streets of Paris

The key word is “provocative”. By their insulting, Islamophobic behavior, the staff of Charlie Hebdo “provoked” some members of the Religion of Peace – who, mind you, had a history of mental problems – to respond with violent excess.

They can’t hide the “Allahu akhbar” very easily – too many witness reports, too many videos with clear audio — and they can’t make this well-organized commando attack into the work of “lone wolves”. So the only way to handle it is to use the same meme promoted by Hillary Clinton concerning “The Innocence of Muslims” — Charlie Hebdo’s actions were a provocation.

A related theme is the magazine’s “history of controversy”. The Irish Times is one of many news outlets that have used that phrase or similar ones since the news from Paris broke.

So the fixed narrative is beginning to settle into place: Charlie Hebdo was “provocative” in its insults against the prophet, and had “a history of controversy”. The “Allahu akhbars” will soon be scrubbed from the media reports, and when (if) the perps are caught, they will no doubt turn out to have a history of mental illness. It will be a stretch to turn those well-trained Kalashnikov commandos into “lone wolves”, but you can bet the attempt will be made.

And it’s an absolute certainty that this tragic incident had nothing to do with Islam.

Vlad Tepes has made this useful video, in which David Cameron’s Dhimmispeak about the attack is subtitled in English:

Here is a video showing the point-blank execution of the policeman (hat tip Steen). WARNING: Very disturbing!

A video taken from the rooftop in which “Allahu akhbar!” can be clearly heard:

Finally, the Turkish take on this morning’s events (hat tip Fjordman):

Turkish Ministers Notes ‘Islamophobia’ While Condemning Paris Newspaper Attack

Two Turkish government ministers have condemned the deadly shooting attack on a French satirical newspaper, while also calling on Europe to tackle the rise of Islamophobia.

“Whatever is its reason or target, we are against all kinds of terror,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told journalists Jan. 7, hours after hooded gunmen stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo in the worst militant attack on French soil in recent decades.

Çavuşoğlu added terrorism is the first of two elements that Europe must fight. The second problem, he said, “is racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia, which is on the rise in many regions of Europe.”

The Turkish FM asserted that terrorism and Islamophobia “affect and trigger each other.”

49 thoughts on “The Charlie Hebdo Massacre

  1. When I was a journalist eight years ago during the Muhammad cartoon affair I tried to push back against this, writing that my profession’s pusillanimity in the face of Muslim demands for self-censorship had “set a dreadful precedent, one certain to haunt us all in the years ahead.” Since resigning in protest over my paper’s refusal to print any of the Danish cartoons I have seen this borne out time and again, but never more horrifically than today. This is what the French get for importing Muslims into their country, which is rather like importing cockroaches into your kitchen. As the American government is doing likewise, we can expect our share of the same – and indeed have already gotten it, as witness Fort Hood, et al.

    Islam delenda est!

    • PW

      Cockroaches are harmless. Ugly and irksome to see scuttling across the kitchen floor when you turn the light on in the middle of the night, but they carry no germs that aren’t already in your domestic environment’s bacteriological culture. Flies on the other hand spread nasty stuff around your house – hint keep toilet seat cover closed especially during warmer months.

      • Unlike our six-legged cucaracha friends, flies are nasty. And if a fly falls into your drink, practice proper hygiene:

        Narrated Abu Huraira: “The Prophet said “If a house fly falls in the drink of anyone of you, he should dip it (in the drink), for one of its wings has a disease and the other has the cure for the disease.” (Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 54, Number 537)”

        More at
        http://www.answering-christianity.com/hadiths_of_the_fly.htm

  2. Nothing can replace the lives of the people massacred, especially for their loved ones. But maybe- fingers crossed- the consciousness of the mainstream French, and others, will be raised, despite the lies and obfuscation of most politicians and media.

  3. Racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia is just what Europe needs more of. The worship of foreigners and minorities is killing the West.

  4. The Sycophants, lackeys, and groveling apologists of Islam have it all wrong. This is the true face of Islam. Strangely there are no blanket denials and condemnations of this horrific slaughter by the various robed,costumed Imams and ‘spokesmen’. They are more than likely ‘high fiving’ each other behind closed doors.

    • —I agree, but how and where to — that’s the problem. Ten million are rather a lot to round up and put on planes and ships, especially in a short time before they all vanished over various borders (and don’t forget there is free movement of people throughout the EU). And which Muslim countries could be bribed to take an extra 10 million ‘devout’ muslims?

      In a way, I can sympathise with the Governments’ mumbling about ‘nothing to do with Islam’ and crossing their fingers, hoping that something turns up.

      • Ferries to whatever countries from which the flotillas migrant flotillas were allowed to depart can be organized. Migrants and enabling non-European governments wanted the former’s presence in Europe to be the problem of the European peoples. The European peoples can arrange for migrants to be the problem of the migrants and the sending countries.

        The options are for there to be (A) X million migrants who remain in place in Europe, (B) something less than X million remain in Europe, or (C) X million who return home. Option A is certain suicide. Option B is eventual suicide. Option C is unavoidable.

        The deliberate attempt to replace the native populations of Europe with foreigners can now be clearly seen. Every last vestige of that treasonous effort must be reversed.

        Compensation to foreigners can be paid based on length of residence if they have not be receiving public benefits, otherwise a cash payment can be made equal to transportation across the Med and an amount to help them with two to three months of expenses. Limited exceptions can be made for business owners and certain others, provided that Muslims within their ranks declare Islam to be forever anathema to them.

        A bright junior clerk in the Home Office can come up with a superior proposal in two days, just so long as everyone recognizes that Options A and B are unacceptable.

        It is too bad that people came to Europe thinking they could take advantage of the welfare system and stay. The new rule, however, is that no one at all has a right to come to the West unless they hold a visa from a Western government.

        Islamic zakat and oil wealth can take up the slack for relocating and caring for Muslims removed from Europe.

      • How?

        You can figure it out; it’s not rocket science. Round them up, put them on ships and planes.

        Where to?

        There are millions of square miles of land in the Muslim world to drop them off onto/into.

        Why are you asking these [insulting adjective] questions that you could answer yourself if you thought, actually thought, for a few seconds.

        • All muslims in Sweden then, soon more than 1,5 million. Send them home, an extremely big project, I think it’s hopeless. They rather kill us than go back to their homelands. We are soon erased and they win anyway. I see no future.

          • It depends on whether ethnic Swedes have the courage to get behind the one party willing to set limits and to call for nationalism. It will require giving up the arrogant and mistaken foolishness of “soft power” and exchanging it for hard steel – guns. Because you can be sure your immigrants will have them in abundance, just as they do in France.

            Europe is proving the truth of America’s much-derided Second Amendment. If the populace isn’t armed, the elites in charge will run roughshod over you. In response to cries here for gun control, opponents tell them to disarm the criminals first. So far no takers.

  5. Let’s review English, shall we? A phobia is an irrational fear of something, like spiders, for example.

    However, when it comes to a word like Islamophobia, it is no longer an irrational fear. Islam kills, as been seen over and over, ad infinitum, for a number of years now.

    If we don’t wake up soon, our country and culture will be gone, our lives will be gone and the world will once more descend into the barbaric civilization that birthed Islam.

    Being somewhat elderly, I am glad I will not witness this but I worry for my descendants because they surely deserve better than to have to listen to what our president had to say about this barbaric event in Paris.

    • Of course you are correct about the meaning of Islamophobia, since only an ostrich would neglect to have a rational fear of things that intend its demise.
      The term was coined by Muslims themselves and disseminated widely by a complicit press and willing leaders who understood the natural recoiling of decent people when labeled as haters. You might call it psy-ops, a means to place the onus on the victims rather than the perps.

  6. This is our future in Europe. Atrocities like this could be committed every day–I repeat–every single day, and it would not prompt even a reduction in Islamic migration from the powers that be. This is unavoidable as long as the sociopaths in charge keep their control.

  7. If the “Gates of Vienna” commemorate the “Siege of Vienna” then it is an appropriate name. We are all under siege, and there is no way out anymore, it is fight for the win or for death.
    ZTF

  8. Time for those cartoons to be put on every wall in France and maybe war planes throw leaflets with cartoons over ISIS troops in the ME.

  9. And of course, as with EVERY single act of Islamic terrorism we have heard the typical excuses:

    1) Islam has nothing to do with it™

    2) the terrorists aren’t Muslim since they committed a terrorist act® (which is mindboggling circular logic)

    Seriously, how does this work; whenever a right wing extremist commits a terrorist act NOBODY goes “National Socialism has nothing to do with it. He’s not a Nazi” or something.. The same comparison could be made with ecoterrorists, left wing extremists etc.

    However, whenever the terrorist is Muslim then, bizarly, 1) and 2) always apply.

    The guys shout Allahu Akbar, have Muslim names, come from Muslim countries, and follow the Koran to the letter according to their OWN admissions.
    What are they if they aren’t Muslims???

    Christians? Jews? Hindus? Atheists maybe? Shintos? Buddhists?

    • Why are you propagating the leftist false meme that right wing extremism and Nazism are synonymous? Nazi is the German acronym for National SOCIALIST Workers’ Party and they started out as allies with Stalin. Hitler and Stalin were 2 leftist thieves who divided Europe up between them in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (named for their foreign ministers). Like all thieves they had a falling out and when Hitler attacked, Stalin ran to the Western allies to save his own skin AND started calling his erstwhile crony “right wing”, a cry taken up by communist sympathizers in western media. We should not take the mass murderer Stalin as our arbiter of political leanings.

      • Laine, I searched back on this comment thread and don’t see anyone saying “right wing extremism”.

        Yes, the Left wins the gold brick for extremism, for cynical “ends-justify-the-means” strategies.

        We have to break the bond between nationalism and socialism if we’re going to prevail. Socialism is a zero sum game and has brought much ruin to Europe; the ruling leftist elites even now are trying to shore up their utopian nightmares with more of the same.

        Obama has done the same here. It remains to be seen if we can get out from under his regulations, debt, emasculation of our military and militarization of our law enforcement. Not to mention his racist wars – he’s dying to lead a few of those, complete with conflagrations and incendiary rhetoric to divide us.

        We need to survive Obama and the left. Europe is in much worse shape.

  10. When I tuned in at noon, the talking heads on the telly were mentioning how frightening Catholics and Right-wingers can be, and that they were targeted by Charlie Hebdo.

    Of course, they supposed that Catholics or right-wingers were the ones who committed this atrocity.

  11. From what I see, the reaction so far has been protests with placards saying that people will not be afraid, and Twitter hashtags saying “Je suis Charlie”. All well and good, but how many of those “unafraid people” will actually have the guts to display a Mohammed Cartoon by Charlie Hebdo?

  12. NYT just doesn’t get WHY Charlie was the target of the terrorists

    Are they that dumb, or just stubbornly pro-sharia?
    The fact of shooting down journalists, free speech, and police will give you what?
    Are we on our way away from democrazy(…) to theocrazy?

    • Theocrazy? No – that should be allahcrazy. And if you think Islamic terrorists are unhinged now, just try a few Allah Toons. Christians and Jews put up with cartoon depictions of the white-bearded Head Dude, but somehow I think the Club for the Easily Offended will not be so sanguine were anyone to try it.

      But the whole thing is an excuse to attack anyway. It if hadn’t been the ‘toons, it would have been some other “insult” – misspelling “Koran” maybe. Or daring to discuss it.

  13. Time for mass-conversion away from that moon god-ideology

    Former editor of Charlie, Philippe Val, says nothing like that, but today he does say to muslims in general: “Stand with Us!”

  14. You GoV racists and Islamophobes just don’t get it do you? The provocateurs at Charlie Hebdo had it coming to them. Jeepers, their premises were firebombed only three years ago – wasn’t that enough of a warning?

    Was it just and reasonable that the three Algerian lads murdered the ten editorial staff of Hebdo for reprinting cartoons? And a couple of policemen. Of course it was! As one of the Kouachi brother’s lawyers explained in his third last criminal trial that whilst his client had merely been once just a petty criminal, the mistreatment of Muslims at Abu Ghraib in Iraq had “aggrieved” him.

    As a Wikkan police officer I am aggrieved by the derogatory way my religion is treated in the press: the media even mock the fact that there is a Wikkan Police Officers Association in Britain. Only a couple of days ago myself and a couple of WPOA members launched a RPG attack on the office of a newspaper that published a story on the WPOA which was disrespectful. Regrettably our operation was on a Sunday morning and we didn’t manage to kill or even maim anybody. Bad planning on our part, I agree.

    Never mind, my Hare Krishna girlfriend has been very aggrieved at the media portrayal of her religion for years. So my disappointed WPOA pals have happily agreed to help me stage a sort of re-run attack this week. This time, however, its going to be on the headquarters of a major British newspaper that recently printed a disrespectful cartoon on Hare Krishnas: it had them singing “Hairy Christma” at an airport, making fun of the fact that Krishna monks shave their heads. We’re hoping for dozens, maybe scores, of fatalities! We’ve got access to confiscated automatic firearms as well as RPGs (all from one London Mosque – who’d have oddsed that?). So, fingers crossed.

    Oh, if by any chance we kill or maim anybody you know, please try to empathize with my girlfriend’s deeply wounded feelings at her religion being insulted.

  15. The attackers have friends in the Catholic Community if Bill Donohue of the Catholic league is any indication. He was on Fox News today, and wasn’t mad at the Islamic terrorists murdering 12 people, no he was boiling mad that Charlie Hebdo was allowed to publish any material defaming Islam. He ranted about putting restrictions on free speech in regards to religion(meaning Islam, because he doesn’t rant like this when it involves any other religion).

    Hitler and Stalin would have loved this guy.

    One other thing, expect the MSM to rationalize this attack away and eventually blame it on the anti-jihad movement in Europe and here. They will never admit there is a problem Islam, even if there are a hundred more attacks like Hebdo’s.

  16. Another part of the theme being developed is one of the brothers who was arrested previously for recruiting jihadists to fight in Iraq was apparently quoted at that time as saying he became radicalized after watching horrible images of the abuse at abu graib prison. That ties this directly to Bush and his atrocities and his illegal and unjust wars.

  17. Nice to see the civilians as well as the police were unarmed. I bet they even had a NO GUN ZONE sign somewhere. Among the lessons learned is that the police cannot protect you. They will arrive in time to draw chalk outlines in the pavement. That diversity is just another way of saying I surrender.

    I expect Europe, at least Western Europe to surrender soon. I doubt Eastern Europe will. America with its God Emperor will probably declare itself for Islam anyday now.

  18. On the Daily Mail story with pictures of various vigils around Europe, a couple of comments by Americans mentioned the unfortunate fact that the police and the civilian victims had no weapons — were denied the right to have weapons — with which to defend their own lives. Those comments were the only ones I saw with large numbers of down-votes. (The other comments were overwhelmingly from Brits & Europeans, so the down-votes to self-defense undoubtedly were as well.)

  19. The Battle of Lepanto
    A look back on history
    – and, Food for Thought

    “The mightiest of all Rosary victories was the battle of Lepanto.

    The Mohammedans, at the peak of their naval power in the Mediterranean, threatened to overrun Christian Europe. In this extremity Pope Pius V formed a league against them. The Christian fleet, furnished by Venice, Genoa, and Spain was commanded by Don Juan of Austria”

    Miguel de Cervantes at the battle
    “It is better that I should fight in the service of God and the king and die for them, than keep under cover.”

    “On Sunday, October 7, 1571 a group of naval forces from Spain, Naples, Sicily, Venice and Genoa, led by Don Juan of Austria, met the Ottoman forces in the Gulf of Lepanto, off of Western Greece.

    Cervantes’ own ship, the Marquesa, was part of the Christian fleet. When the fighting began Cervantes was very sick, but when his captain insisted he should stay below, he replied, “. . . up to now I have served as a good soldier. I shall not do less on this occasion, even though I am weak and full of fever.

    It is better that I should fight in the service of God and the king and die for them, than keep under cover.”

    • Charb

      – I’d rather die standing up
      than living on my knees

      Charb, one of the fallen at Charlie

      • Again

        Charb

        – I’d rather die standing up
        than live on my knees

        Charb, one of the fallen at Charlie

    • The Battle of Lepanto
      The Confidence

      “The Christian forces defeated the Ottoman fleet by nightfall, and prevented not only the complete takeover of the Mediterranean by the Ottomans, but also an Ottoman invasion of Europe.

      Historian Paul K. Davis has argued that it also gave Western Europe confidence that the previously unstoppable Ottoman forces could be beaten”

    • Unfortunately, the gains from the great victory at Lepanto suffered a significant reversal only a few years later at La Goulette (according to historian Émile Chasles, in his book on Cervantes and Islam, entitled Michel de Cervantes, sa vie, son temps, son oeuvre politique et littéraire (“Miguel de Cervantes: His life, his time, his political and literary works”). See my essay on my blog on this for more details:

      http://hesperado.blogspot.com/2013/06/cervantes-and-islam.html

  20. Michel Houellebecq’s book “Submission”
    Extreme timing

    Houellebecq’s book “Soumission” is published on the same day that the terrorists attack Charlie Hebdo.

    And on this same day, one of the victims, the economist Bernard Maris, signs the article “Michel’s Conversion”, about Houellebecq’s book, in Charlie.

    Again, reality is more fictionous than fiction could be and at the same time be credible.
    Charb’s last caricature, now, after the attack, tragically, seems like a fulfillment of itself, in its premonitory Message

    – Still no attacks in France. But for presenting wishes, you still have until the end of January.

    What is more, Francois Hollande, after the attack, speaks of the Grande France, which is exactly what Hoellebecq, is describing, the French-speaking countries around the Mediterranean will, one after the other, adhere to France and make it grand like never before, according to Maris’ article, “La conversion de Michel”.

    Michel Houellebecq,’s “Submission” is a masterpiece, said Bernard Maris, in Charlie Hebdo, before he fell at the massacre in Paris 2015.

    • Houllebecq’s recent interview indicates that he’s severely asymptotic about the problem of Islam (i.e., he doesn’t think it’s that great of a problem, and more importantly doesn’t think it’s a problem of Muslims).

  21. The Daily Mail here in the UK said that Charlie Hebdo was “notorious” for being anti-islam. I understand that that is far from the truth and that CH poked fun at everyone and everything. The BBC came close to saying something similar but I was shocked,shocked I tell you, to hear one reporter refer to the cartoons as depicting the “prophet of islam”. this marked a departure from the usual “the prophet Mohammed” as though he was so recognised by all. Refreshing that at least some reporters are realistic.
    As for “mental illness” excuses. I haven’t read that yet but am sure we will eventually be told that. We are already being peddled the usual twaddle about these brothers having had a difficult childhood in foster care. Preparing for the defence I expect – if they are captured rather than killed. Personally I hope that they are publicly lynched and buried in pigskin.

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