"I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees." –Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier (1967 – 2015), publisher, Charlie Hebdo.
On Wednesday morning, the French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo was once again targeted by violent jihadists for the crime of depicting in print the image of the Prophet Mohammed.
According to initial reports, three gunmen killed 10 magazine staffers and two police officers who responded to the shooting.
The magazine’s offices were firebombed in 2011 after it initially published cartoons depicting Mohammed, one of a string of attacks retaliating against predominately European publications that dared to "blaspheme."
Those attacks, like today’s shooting, were brutal and savage attempts to silence speech that their fanatical perpetrators find offensive to their seventh-century worldview and conception of their religion.
The Washington Free Beacon extends its deepest condolences to the staff of Charlie Hebdo, their families, and all of the people of France rocked by this morning’s shooting. We pray the shooters are found and brought to justice.
We also stand in solidarity with all journalists, cartoonists, and social commentators threatened with violence or attacked by censorious fanatics. We feel a fitting tribute to Charb and his publication would be to republish the cartoons for which he gave his life.
Just minutes before gunmen broke into the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, the magazine tweeted this mockery of "Islamic State" leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi:
Meilleurs vœux, au fait. pic.twitter.com/a2JOhqJZJM
— Charlie Hebdo (@Charlie_Hebdo_) January 7, 2015