A French satirical paper called Charlie Hebdo has been the target of attacks for a long time. Charlie often features cartoons lampooning national leaders, and most controversially, the Prophet Mohammed, a figure in the Islamic religion. Just a few years ago, the former HQ of Charlie Hebdo was firebombed by terrorists.
On January 7th, two gunmen entered the offices of Charlie Hebdo and killed 12, among them cartoonists, an economist, and police officers. The two gunmen were brothers, Said and Cherif Kouachi. Both were radicalized from visits to AQAP(Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) over the previous years. Within the coming hours, another terrorist, Amedy Coulibaly, shot and killed a female police officer. As a manhunt ensued across Paris, Coulibaly took hostages in a Kosher market and killed four.
Many hostages were rescued by police after Coulibaly was gunned down, but a female accomplice who is also Coulibaly's wife, Hayat Boumeddiene, escaped before the attacks and was last seen at passport control in Spain as she headed to Turkey. An international arrest warrant has been filed for Boumeddiene who is believed to be in Syria. These attacks have united and divided the French people and have sparked panic across the European continent and the world.
It has been 28 long days since the attacks in Paris and now those in France begin to question Charlie's lampooning of religious figures. Moments of silence were held across French schools and in one, a 8 year old boy yelled, "I am with the terrorists!". The boy was then taken to the police station. Hundreds of complaints from students echoed across the nation as the question debating the ethicality of continuously satirizing the Prophet and other religious figures arose.
Many Muslim citizens are shocked by this national tragedy yet do feel that the magazine has gone too far. This divide doesn't remain in France, however. In Germany, anti-Islam and anti-Semitic protests were held with many upset over Chancellor Angela Merkel's immigration policies. Europe continues to recover from the deadly attacks with amped up security all across the continent as they hope another attack will never happen.