In a shocking attack caught on film this week, three gunmen entered a magazine office in Paris and massacred 12 people, many of them cartoonists for the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. One of the shooters turned himself in and the other two were hunted for days until being cornered in a warehouse Friday and killed.
After the assault on the magazine, Parisians held demonstrations supporting the freedom of speech and holding signs that read “Je Suis Charlie” or “I am Charlie” and holding pens in the air in support of the magazine and its murdered employees.
But since the assault, many Muslims in France, who make up 10 percent of the population, say there has been growing hostility towards their community. Some feel an entire religion is being blamed for the actions of a few radicals.
In recent years, Freedom of Speech has even been called into question, since the French government has deemed it acceptable to ban the burqa, and this action was upheld by the human rights court. There have also been a sequence of attacks on French mosques and businesses since the Charlie Hebdo incident.
These targeted attacks against Islamic people and their places of worship are dangerous. They threaten innocent people who have no association with what extremists have done. Most victims are Muslims themselves. Muslim police officer Ahmed Merabet was killed at close range by the attackers on Wednesday, sparking those to change the hashtag from “#JeSuisCharlie” to “#JeSuisAhmed.
