In a horrific attack in Paris today, multiple terrorists assaulted the headquarters of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, reportedly shouting "we have avenged the prophet Muhammad" before fleeing by car.
The BBC reports that 12 people are dead and seven injured after gunmen opened fire at the offices of the magazine. The gunmen also reportedly shot a French policeman who begged for his life in the street outside the magazine.
Charlie Hebdo became infamous years ago for publishing the "Muhammad cartoons," which had Islamic terrorists reacting violently as well. The magazine has pointed its barbs at Islamic extremists ever since. This is the last tweet from the magazine before this attack, mocking ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi:
Meilleurs vœux, au fait. pic.twitter.com/a2JOhqJZJM
— Charlie Hebdo (@Charlie_Hebdo_) January 7, 2015French President Francois Hollande proclaimed the attack to be terrorism as the terror alert was raised in the country, while the terrorists escaped and were stated to be still at large.
The cover of this week's Charlie Hebdo featured Michel Houllebecq, whose new novel Submission is an alternative future dystopia in which France is run by an Islamist party. In 2011, the Charlie Hebdo offices were burned to the ground by terrorists with a molotov cocktail.
Here are two of the previous Charlie Hebdo cartoons that have caused Islamic extremists to be up in arms:
Editor Stéphane Charbonnier, reportedly among the victims of the attack, in 2012 defended his magazine against would-be censors in an interview with Le Monde, saying that his magazine will "shock only those who want to be shocked," adding:
“I don’t feel as though I’m killing someone with a pen. I’m not putting lives at risk. When activists need a pretext to justify their violence, they always find it.”
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