On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. inParis, France, the employees of the French satirical weekly magazineCharlie Hebdo were targeted in a terrorist shooting attack by two French-bornAlgerian Muslim brothers,Saïd Kouachi [ar;de;fa;fr] andChérif Kouachi [ar;de;fa;fr]. Armed with rifles and other weapons, the duo murdered 12 people and injured 11 others; they identified themselves as members ofal-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility for the attack. They fled after the shooting, triggering a manhunt, and were killed by theGIGN on 9 January. The Kouachi brothers' attack was followed byseveral related Islamist terrorist attacks across theÎle-de-France between 7 and 9 January 2015, including theHypercacher kosher supermarket siege, in which a French-bornMalian Muslim took hostages and murdered four people (allJews) before being killed by French commandos.
In response to the shooting, France raised itsVigipirate terror alert and deployed soldiers in Île-de-France andPicardy. A majormanhunt led to the discovery of the suspects, who exchanged fire with police. The brothers took hostages at a signage company inDammartin-en-Goële on 9 January and were shot dead when they emerged from the building firing.
On 11 January, about two million people, including more than 40 world leaders, met in Paris for arally of national unity, and 3.7 million people joined demonstrations across France. The phraseJe suis Charlie became a common slogan of support at rallies and on social media. The staff ofCharlie Hebdo continued with the publication, andthe following issue print ran 7.95 million copies in six languages, compared to its typical print run of 60,000 in French only.
Charlie Hebdo is a publication that has long courted controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders. It published cartoons of theIslamic prophetMuhammad in 2012, forcing France to temporarily close embassies and schools in more than 20 countries amid fears of reprisals. Its offices were firebombed in November 2011 after publishing a previous caricature of Muhammad on its cover.
On 16 December 2020, 14 people who were accomplices to both theCharlie Hebdo and Jewish supermarket attackers were convicted. Three accomplices were not captured and weretried in absentia.[5]
Background
Charlie Hebdo satirical works
Charlie Hebdo (French forCharlie Weekly) is a Frenchsatirical weekly newspaper that features cartoons, reports,polemics, and jokes. The publication, irreverent and stridently non-conformist in tone, is stronglysecularist,antireligious,[6] andleft-wing, publishing articles that mockCatholicism,Judaism,Islam, and various other groups as local and world news unfolds. The magazine was published from 1969 to 1981 and has been again from 1992 on.[7]
Numerous violent plots related to theJyllands-Posten cartoons were discovered, primarily targeting cartoonist Westergaard, editor Rose, and the property or employees ofJyllands-Posten and other newspapers that printed the cartoons.[a] Westergaard was the subject of several attacks and planned attacks, and lived under police protection for the rest of his life. On 1 January 2010, police used guns to stop a would-be assassin in his home,[28][29] who was sentenced to nine years in prison.[b][30][31] In 2010, three men based in Norway were arrested on suspicion of planning a terror attack againstJyllands-Posten or Kurt Westergaard; two of them were convicted.[32][33] In the United States,David Headley andTahawwur Hussain Rana were convicted in 2013 of planning terrorism againstJyllands-Posten.[34][35][36]
In France,blasphemy law ceased to exist with progressive emancipation of the Republic from the Catholic Church between 1789 and 1830. In France, the principle ofsecularism (laïcité – theseparation of church and state) was enshrined in the1905 law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, and in 1945 became part of the constitution. Under its terms, the government and all public administrations and services must be religion-blind and their representatives must refrain from any display of religion, but private citizens and organisations are free to practise and express the religion of their choice where and as they wish (although discrimination based on religion is prohibited).[37]
In recent years, there has been a trend towards a stricter interpretation oflaïcité which would also prohibit users of certain public services from expressing their religion (e.g. the 2004 law which bans school pupils from wearing "blatant" religious symbols[38]) or ban citizens from expressing their religion in public even outside the administration and public services (e.g. a 2015 law project prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols by the employees of private crèches). This restrictive interpretation is not supported by the initial law on laïcité and is challenged by the representatives of all the major religions.[39]
Authors, humourists, cartoonists, and individuals have the right to satirise people, public actors, and religions, a right which is balanced by defamation laws. These rights and legal mechanisms were designed to protectfreedom of speech from local powers, among which was the then-powerfulCatholic Church in France.[40]
Though images of Muhammad are not explicitly banned by theQuran itself, prominent Islamic views have longopposed human images, especially those of prophets. Such views have gained ground among militant Islamic groups.[41][42][43] Accordingly, some Muslims take the view that the satire ofIslam, of religious representatives, and above all of Islamic prophets isblasphemy in Islam punishable by death.[44] This sentiment was most famously actualised in the murder of the controversial Dutch filmmakerTheo van Gogh. According to theBBC, France has seen "the apparent desire of some younger, often disaffected children or grandchildren of immigrant families not to conform to western, liberal lifestyles – including traditions of religious tolerance and free speech".[45]
Attack
Charlie Hebdo headquarters
On the morning of 7 January 2015, a Wednesday, Charlie Hebdo staff were gathered at 10Rue Nicolas-Appert in the11th arrondissement of Paris for the weekly editorial meeting starting around 10:30. The magazine had moved into an unmarked office at this address following the 2011 firebombing of their previous premises due to the magazine's original satirisation of Muhammad.[46]
Around 11:00a.m., two armed and hooded men first burst into the wrong address at 6 Rue Nicolas-Appert, shouting "Is thisCharlie Hebdo?" and threatening people. After realising their mistake and firing a bullet through a glass door, the two men left for 10 Rue Nicolas-Appert.[47] There, they encountered cartoonistCorinne "Coco" Rey and her young daughter outside and at gunpoint, forced her to enter the passcode into the electronic door.[48]
The men sprayed the lobby with gunfire upon entering. The first victim was maintenance worker Frédéric Boisseau, who was killed as he sat at the reception desk.[49] The gunmen forced Rey at gunpoint to lead them to a second-floor office, where 15 staff members were having an editorial meeting,[50]Charlie Hebdo's first news conference of the year. ReporterLaurent Léger said they were interrupted by what they thought was the sound of a firecracker—the gunfire from the lobby—and recalled, "We still thought it was a joke. The atmosphere was still joyous."[51]
The gunmen burst into the meeting room. The shooting lasted five to ten minutes. The gunmen aimed at the journalists' heads and killed them.[52][53] During the gunfire, Rey survived uninjured by hiding under a desk, from where she witnessed the murders ofWolinski andCabu.[54] Léger also survived by hiding under a desk as the gunmen entered.[55] Ten of the twelve people murdered were shot on the second floor, past the security door.[56]
PsychoanalystElsa Cayat, a French columnist of Tunisian Jewish descent, was killed.[57] Another female columnist present at the time, crime reporterSigolène Vinson, survived; one of the shooters aimed at her but spared her, saying, "I'm not killing you because you are a woman", and telling her toconvert toIslam, read theQuran and wear aveil. She said he left shouting, "Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!"[58][59][60] Other witnesses reported that the gunmen identified themselves as belonging toal-Qaeda in Yemen.[61]
Escape
Police vans arrive on the scene.
An authenticated video surfaced on the Internet that shows two gunmen and a police officer, Ahmed Merabet, who is wounded and lying on a sidewalk after an exchange of gunfire. This took place near the corner ofBoulevard Richard-Lenoir and Rue Moufle, 180 metres (590 ft) east of the main crime scene. One of the gunmen ran towards the policeman and shouted, "Did you want to kill us?" The policeman answered, "No, it's fine, boss", and raised his hand toward the gunman, who then murdered the policeman with a fatal shot to the head at close range.[62]
Sam Kiley, ofSky News, concluded from the video that the two gunmen were "military professionals" who likely had "combat experience", saying that the gunmen were exercising infantry tactics such as moving in "mutual support" and were firing aimed, single-round shots at the police officer. He also stated that they were using military gestures and were "familiar with their weapons" and fired "carefully aimed shots, with tight groupings".[63]
The gunmen then left the scene, shouting, "We have avenged theProphet Muhammad. We have killedCharlie Hebdo!"[64][65][60] They escaped in a getaway car, and drove toPorte de Pantin, hijacking another car and forcing its driver out. As they drove away, they ran over a pedestrian and shot at responding police officers.[66]
It was initially believed that there were three suspects. One identified suspect turned himself in at aCharleville-Mézières police station.[67][68] Seven of the Kouachi brothers' friends and family were taken into custody.[69] Jihadist flags andMolotov cocktails were found in an abandoned getaway car, a blackCitroën C3.[70]
Motive
Charlie Hebdo had attracted considerable worldwide attention for its controversialdepictions of Muhammad. Hatred forCharlie Hebdo's cartoons, which made jokes about Islamic leaders as well asMuhammad, is considered to be the principal motive for the massacre.Michael Morell, former deputy director of theCIA, suggested that the motive of the attackers was"absolutely clear: trying to shut down a media organisation that lampooned the Prophet Muhammad".[71]
In March 2013,al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen, commonly known asal-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), released a hit list in an edition of their English-language magazineInspire. The list included Stéphane Charbonnier (known as Charb, the editor ofCharlie Hebdo) and others whom AQAP accused of insulting Islam.[72][73] On 9 January, AQAP claimed responsibility for the attack in a speech from AQAP's top Shariah clericHarith bin Ghazi al-Nadhari, citing the motive as "revenge for the honour" of Muhammad.[74]
Frédéric Boisseau, 42, building maintenance worker forSodexo, killed in the lobby as he came to the building on a call, the first victim of the shooting.
Franck Brinsolaro, 49,Protection Service police officer assigned as a bodyguard for Charb.[83]
Ahmed Merabet, 42, police officer, shot in the head as he lay wounded on the ground outside.[84]
Michel Renaud [fr;it], 69, a travel writer and festival organiser visiting Cabu.[85]
Several people at the meeting were unharmed, including book designer Gérard Gaillard, who was a guest, and staff members,Sigolène Vinson,[90] Laurent Léger, and Éric Portheault.
The cartoonistCoco was coerced into letting the murderers into the building, and was not harmed.[91] Several other staff members were not in the building at the time of the shooting, including medical columnistPatrick Pelloux, cartoonistsRénald "Luz" Luzier andCatherine Meurisse and film critic Jean-Baptiste Thoret, who were late for work, cartoonistWillem, who never attends,editor-in-chiefGérard Biard and journalistZineb El Rhazoui who were on holiday, journalistAntonio Fischetti [it], who was at a funeral, and comedian and columnistMathieu Madénian. Luz arrived in time to see the gunmen escaping.[92]
Assailants
Chérif and Saïd Kouachi
Biography
Chérif and Saïd Kouachi
Chérif Kouachi (left) and Saïd Kouachi
Born
Chérif:(1982-11-29)29 November 1982 Saïd:(1980-09-07)7 September 1980
Police quickly identified brothersSaïd Kouachi (French:[sa.idkwaʃi]; 7 September 1980 – 9 January 2015) andChérif Kouachi (French:[ʃeʁif]; 29 November 1982 – 9 January 2015) as the main suspects.[c] French citizens born in Paris to Algerian immigrants, the brothers were orphaned at a young age after their mother's apparent suicide and placed in a foster home inRennes.[94] After two years, they were moved to an orphanage inCorrèze in 1994, along with a younger brother and an older sister.[98][99] The brothers moved to Paris around 2000.[100]
Upon leaving prison, Chérif Kouachi married and got a job in a fish market on the outskirts of Paris. He became a student of Farid Benyettou, a radical Muslim preacher at the Addawa Mosque in the19th arrondissement of Paris. Kouachi wanted to attack Jewish targets in France, but Benyettou told him that France, unlike Iraq, was not "a land of jihad".[106]
On 28 March 2008, Chérif was convicted of terrorism and sentenced to three years in prison, with 18 monthssuspended, for recruiting fighters for militant IslamistAbu Musab al-Zarqawi's group in Iraq.[94] He said outrage at the torture of inmates by the US Army atAbu Ghraib prison inspired him to help Iraq's insurgency.[107]
French judicial documents state Amedy Coulibaly and Chérif Kouachi travelled with their wives in 2010 to central France to visit Djamel Beghal. In a police interview in 2010, Coulibaly identified Chérif as a friend he had met in prison and said they saw each other frequently.[108] In 2010, the Kouachi brothers were named in connection with a plot to break out of jail with another Islamist,Smaïn Aït Ali Belkacem [fr]. Belkacem was one of those responsible for the1995 Paris Métro and RER bombings that killed eight people.[103][109] For lack of evidence, they were not prosecuted.
From 2009 to 2010, Saïd Kouachi visited Yemen on a student visa to study at theSan'a Institute for the Arabic Language. There, according to a Yemeni reporter who interviewed Saïd, he met and befriendedUmar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the perpetrator of the attempted bombing ofNorthwest Airlines Flight 253 later in 2009. Also according to the reporter, the two shared an apartment for "one or two weeks".[110]
In 2011, Saïd returned to Yemen for a number of months and trained withal-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militants.[111] According to a senior Yemeni intelligence source, he met al Qaeda preacherAnwar al-Awlaki in the southern province ofShabwa.[112] Chérif Kouachi toldBFM TV that he had been funded by a network loyal to Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by a drone strike in 2011 in Yemen.[113] According to US officials, the US provided France with intelligence in 2011 showing the brothers received training in Yemen. French authorities monitored them until the spring of 2014.[114] During the time leading to theCharlie Hebdo attack, Saïd lived with his wife and children in a block of flats inReims. Neighbours described him as solitary.[115]
The weapons used in the attack were supplied via the Brusselsunderworld. According to the Belgian press, a criminal sold Amedy Coulibaly therocket-propelled grenade launcher andKalashnikov rifles that the Kouachi brothers used for less thanEUR €5,000 (US$5,910).[116]
In an interview between Chérif Kouachi and Igor Sahiri, one of France's BFM TV journalists, Chérif stated that "We are not killers. We are defenders of the prophet, we don't kill women. We kill no one. We defend the prophet. If someone offends the prophet then there is no problem, we can kill him. We don't kill women. We are not like you. You are the ones killing women and children in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. This isn't us. We have an honour code in Islam."[117]
After the attack: Manhunt (8 and 9 January)
A massivemanhunt began immediately after the attack. One suspect left hisID card in an abandoned getaway car.[118][119] Police officers searched apartments in the Île-de-France region, inStrasbourg and inReims.[120][121]
Police detained several people during the manhunt for the two main suspects. A third suspect voluntarily reported to a police station after hearing he was wanted and was not charged. Police described the assailants as "armed and dangerous". France raised itsterror alert to its highest level and deployedsoldiers inÎle-de-France andPicardyregions.
Later that day, the police search concentrated on the Picardy, particularly the area aroundVillers-Cotterêts and the village ofLongpont, after the suspects robbed a petrol station near Villers-Cotterêts,[123] then reportedly abandoned their car before hiding in a forest near Longpont.[124] Searches continued into the surroundingForêt de Retz (130 km2), one of the largestforests in France.[125]
The manhunt continued with the discovery of the two fugitive suspects early on the morning of 9 January. The Kouachis had hijacked aPeugeot 206 near the town ofCrépy-en-Valois. They were chased by police cars for approximately 27 kilometres (17 miles) south down the N2 trunk road. At some point they abandoned their vehicle and an exchange of gunfire between pursuing police and the brothers took place near the commune ofDammartin-en-Goële, 35 kilometres (22 miles) northeast of Paris. Several blasts went off as well and Saïd Kouachi sustained a minor neck wound. Several others may have been injured as well but no one was killed in the gunfire. The suspects were not apprehended and escaped on foot.[126]
Dammartin-en-Goële hostage crisis, death of Chérif and Saïd (9 January)
At around 9:30 am on 9 January 2015, the Kouachi brothers fled into the office of Création Tendance Découverte, a signage production company on an industrial estate inDammartin-en-Goële. Inside the building were owner Michel Catalano and a male employee, 26-year-old graphics designer Lilian Lepère. Catalano told Lepère to go hide in the building and remained in his office by himself.[127] Not long after, a salesman named Didier went to the printworks on business. Catalano came out with Chérif Kouachi who introduced himself as a police officer. They shook hands and Kouachi told Didier, "Leave. We don't kill civilians anyhow." These words were what caused Didier to guess that Kouachi was a terrorist and he alerted the police.[128]
The Kouachi brothers remained inside and a lengthy standoff began. Catalano re-entered the building and closed the door after Didier had left.[129] The brothers were not aggressive towards Catalano, who stated, "I didn't get the impression they were going to harm me." He made coffee for them and helped bandage the neck wound that Saïd Kouachi had sustained during the earlier gunfire. Catalano was allowed to leave after an hour.[130] Before doing so, Catalano swore three different times to the terrorists that he was alone and did not reveal Lepère's presence; ultimately the Kouachi brothers never became aware of him being there. Lepère hid inside a cardboard box and sent the Gendarmerie text messages for around three hours during the siege, providing them with "tactical elements such as [the brothers'] location inside the premises".[131]
Given the proximity (10 km) of the siege toCharles de Gaulle Airport, two of the airport's runways were closed.[126][132]Interior MinisterBernard Cazeneuve called for a Gendarmerie operation to neutralise the perpetrators. An Interior Ministry spokesman announced that the Ministry wished first to "establish a dialogue" with the suspects. Officials tried to establish contact with the suspects to negotiate the safe evacuation of a school 500 metres (1,600 feet) from the siege. The Kouachi brothers did not respond to attempts at communication by the French authorities.[133]
The siege lasted for eight to nine hours, and at around 4:30 p.m. there were at least three explosions near the building. At around 5:00 pm, aGIGN team landed on the roof of the building and a helicopter landed nearby.[134] Before gendarmes could reach them, the pair ran out of the building and opened fire on gendarmes. The brothers had stated a desire to die as martyrs[135] and the siege came to an end when both Kouachi brothers were shot and killed. Lilian Lepère was rescued unharmed.[136][137] A cache of weapons, includingMolotov cocktails and a rocket launcher, was found in the area.[131]
During the standoff in Dammartin-en-Goële, another jihadist namedAmedy Coulibaly, who had met the brothers in prison,[138]took hostages in a kosher supermarket atPorte de Vincennes in east Paris, killing those of Jewish faith while leaving the others alive. Coulibaly was reportedly in contact with the Kouachi brothers as the sieges progressed, and told police that he would kill hostages if the brothers were harmed.[126][139] Coulibaly and the Kouachi brothers died within minutes of each other.[140]
SuspectedCharlie Hebdo attack driver
The police initially identified the 18-year-old brother-in-law of Chérif Kouachi, a French Muslim student of North African descent and unknown nationality, as a third suspect in the shooting, accused of driving the getaway car.[94] He was believed to have been living inCharleville-Mézières, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) northeast of Paris near theborder with Belgium.[141] He turned himself in at a Charleville-Mézières police station early in the morning on 8 January 2015.[141] The man said he was in class at the time of the shooting, and that he rarely saw Chérif Kouachi.[citation needed] Many of his classmates said that he was at school in Charleville-Mézières during the attack.[142] After detaining him for nearly 50 hours, police decided not to continue further investigations into the teenager.[143]
Peter Cherif
In December 2018, French authorities arrestedPeter Cherif also known as Abu Hamza, for playing an "important role in organising" theCharlie Hebdo attack.[144] Not only was Cherif a close friend of brothers Chérif Kouachi and Saïd Kouachi,[145] but had been on the run from French authorities since 2011. Cherif fled Paris in 2011 just before a court sentenced him to five years in prison on terrorism charges for fighting as an insurgent in Iraq.[citation needed] In 2024, Cherif was sentenced to life imprisonment on terrorism charges.[146]
2020 trial
On 2 September 2020, fourteen people went on trial in Paris charged with providing logistical support and procuring weapons for those who carried out both theCharlie Hebdo shooting and theHypercacher kosher supermarket siege. Of the fourteen on trial Mohamed and Mehdi Belhoucine andAmedy Coulibaly's girlfriend,Hayat Boumeddiene, weretried in absentia, having fled to either Iraq or Syria in the days before the attacks took place.[147][148] In anticipation of the trial getting underwayCharlie Hebdo reprinted cartoons of Muhammad with the caption: "Tout ça pour ça" ("All of that for this").[149]
The trial was scheduled to be filmed for France's official archives.[150] On 16 December 2020, the trial concluded with all fourteen defendants being convicted by a French court.[5]
14 January 2015 cover ofCharlie Hebdo rendered in the same style as the 3 November 2011 one. It depicts Muhammad holding a sign sayingJe suis Charlie and the caption "All is forgiven".
The remaining staff ofCharlie Hebdo continued normal weekly publication, and the following issue print run had 7.95 million copies in six languages.[151] In contrast, its normal print run was 60,000, of which it typically sold 30,000 to 35,000 copies.[152] The cover depicts Muhammad holding a "Je suis Charlie" sign ("I am Charlie"), and is captioned "Tout est pardonné" ("All is forgiven").[153] The issue was also sold outside France.[154] The Digital Innovation Press Fund donated €250,000 to support the magazine, matching a donation by the French Press and Pluralism Fund.[155][156] TheGuardian Media Group pledged £100,000 to the same cause.[157]
On the night of 8 January, police commissioner Helric Fredou, who had been investigating the attack, committedsuicide in his office inLimoges while he was preparing his report shortly after meeting with the family of one of the victims. He was said to have been experiencingdepression andburnout.[citation needed]
In the week after the shooting, 54 anti-Muslim incidents were reported in France. These included 21 reports of shootings,grenade throwing at mosques and other Islamic centres, animprovised explosive device attack,[158] and 33 cases of threats and insults.[d] Authorities classified these acts asright-wing terrorism.[158]
On 7 January 2016, the first anniversary of the shooting,an attempted attack occurred at a police station in theGoutte d'Or district of Paris. The assailant, aTunisian man posing as an asylum-seeker fromIraq orSyria, wearing a fakeexplosive belt charged police officers with a meat cleaver while shouting "Allahu Akbar!" and was subsequently shot and killed.[165][166][167][168]
On 14 February 2015 inCopenhagen, Denmark, a public event called "Art, blasphemy and the freedom of expression", was organised to honour victims of the attack in January against the French satirical newspaperCharlie Hebdo. A series of shootings took place that day and the following day in Copenhagen, with two people killed and five police officers wounded. The suspect, Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, a recently released, radicalised prisoner, was later shot dead by police on 15 February.
On 3 May 2015, two men attempted an attack on theCurtis Culwell Center inGarland, Texas. The centre was hosting an exhibit featuring cartoons depicting Muhammad. The event was presented as a response to the attack onCharlie Hebdo, and organised by the groupAmerican Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI).[169] Both gunmen were killed by police.
Hours after the shooting,Spanish Interior MinisterJorge Fernández Díaz said that Spain's anti-terrorist security level had been upgraded and that the country was sharing information with France in relation to the attacks. Spain increased security in public places such as railway stations and increased the police presence on streets throughout the country's cities.[172]
TheBritish Transport Police confirmed on 8 January that they would establish new armed patrols in and aroundSt Pancras International railway station in London, following reports that the suspects were moving north towardsEurostar stations. They confirmed that the extra patrols were for the reassurance of the public and to maintain visibility and that there were no credible reports yet of the suspects heading towards St Pancras.[173]
In Belgium, the staff ofP-Magazine were given police protection, although there were no specific threats.P-Magazine had previously published a cartoon of Muhammad drawn by the Danish cartoonistKurt Westergaard.[174]
The phraseJe suis Charlie (French for "I am Charlie") came to be a common worldwide sign of solidarity against the attacks.[177] Many demonstrators used the slogan to express solidarity with the magazine. It appeared on printed and hand-made placards, and was displayed on mobile phones at vigils, and on many websites, particularly media sites such asLe Monde. Thehashtag #jesuischarlie quickly trended at the top ofTwitter hashtags worldwide following the attack.[178]
Not long after the attack, it is estimated that around 35,000 people gathered in Paris holding "Je suis Charlie" signs. 15,000 people also gathered in Lyon and Rennes.[179] 10,000 people gathered in Nice and Toulouse; 7,000 in Marseille; and 5,000 each in Nantes, Grenoble and Bordeaux. Thousands also gathered inNantes at the Place Royale.[180] More than 100,000 people in total gathered within France to partake in these demonstrations the evening of 7 January.[181]
A crowd gathered on the evening of 7 January, atUnion Square inManhattan, New York City. French ambassador to the United NationsFrançois Delattre was present; the crowd lit candles, held signs, and sang the French national anthem.[190] Several hundred people also showed up outside of the French consulate inSan Francisco with "Je suis Charlie" signs to show their solidarity.[191] In downtownSeattle, another vigil was held where people gathered around a French flag laid out with candles lit around it. They prayed for the victims and held "Je suis Charlie" signs.[192] In Argentina, a large demonstration was held to denounce the attacks and show support for the victims outside theFrench embassy in the Buenos Aires.[193]
More vigils and gatherings were held in Canada to show support to France and condemn terrorism. Many cities had notable "Je suis Charlie" gatherings, includingCalgary,Montreal,Ottawa and Toronto.[194] In Calgary, there was a strong anti-terrorism sentiment. "We're against terrorism and want to show them that they won't win the battle. It's horrible everything that happened, but they won't win," commented one demonstrator. "It's not only against the French journalists or the French people, it's against freedom – everyone, all over the world, is concerned at what's happening."[195] In Montreal, despite a temperature of −21 °C (−6 °F), over 1,000 people gathered chanting "Liberty!" and "Charlie!" outside of the city's French Consulate. Montreal MayorDenis Coderre was among the gatherers and proclaimed, "Today, we are all French!" He confirmed the city's full support for the people of France and called for strong support regarding freedom, stating that "We have a duty to protect our freedom of expression. We have the right to say what we have to say."[196][197]
8 January
By 8 January, vigils had spread to Australia, with thousands holding "Je suis Charlie" signs. In Sydney, people gathered atMartin Place – the location ofa siege less than a month earlier – and inHyde Park dressed in white clothing as a form of respect. Flags were at half-mast at the city's French consulate where mourners left bouquets.[198] A vigil was held atFederation Square inMelbourne with an emphasis on togetherness. French consul Patrick Kedemos described the gathering inPerth as "a spontaneous, grassroots event". He added, "We are far away but our hearts today [are] with our families and friends in France. It [was] an attack on the liberty of expression, journalists that were prominent in France, and at the same time it's an attack or a perceived attack on our culture."[199]
On 8 January over 100 demonstrations were held from 18:00 in the Netherlands at the time of the silent march in Paris, after a call to do so from the mayors ofAmsterdam,Rotterdam,Utrecht, and other cities. Many Dutch government members joined the demonstrations.[200][201]
Around 700,000 people walked in protest in France on 10 January. Major marches were held in Toulouse (attended by 180,000), Marseille (45,000), Lille (35–40,000), Nice (23–30,000), Pau (80,000), Nantes (75,000), Orléans (22,000), and Caen (6,000).[202]
On 11 January, up to 2 million people, including President Hollande and more than 40 world leaders, led a rally of national unity in the heart of Paris to honour the 17 victims. The demonstrators marched fromPlace de la République toPlace de la Nation. 3.7 million joined demonstrations nationwide in what officials called the largest public rally in France sinceWorld War II.[e]
There were also large marches in many other French towns and cities, and marches and vigils in many other cities worldwide.[f]
This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(October 2016)
About 54 people in France, who had publicly supported the attack onCharlie Hebdo, were arrested as "apologists for terrorism" and about 12 people were sentenced to several months in jail.[209][210] ComedianDieudonné faces the same charges for having written on Facebook "I feel like Charlie Coulibaly".[211]
Following a series of police raids in Belgium, in which two suspected terrorists were killed in a shootout in the city ofVerviers, Belgian police stated that documents seized after the raids appear to show that the two were planning to attack sellers of the next edition ofCharlie Hebdo released following the attack in Paris.[212] Police named the men killed in the raid as Redouane Hagaoui and Tarik Jadaoun.[212]
Protests following resumed publication
Unrest inNiger following the publication of the post-attack issue ofCharlie Hebdo resulted in ten deaths,[213] dozens injured, and at least 45 churches were burned down.[214]The Guardian reported seven churches burned inNiamey alone. Churches were also reported to be on fire in easternMaradi andGoure. There were violent demonstrations in Karachi inPakistan, where Asif Hassan, a photographer working for theAgence France-Presse, was seriously injured by a shot to the chest. In Algiers and Jordan, protesters clashed with police, and there were peaceful demonstrations in Khartoum, Sudan, Russia, Mali, Senegal, andMauritania.[215] In the week after the shooting, 54 anti-Muslim incidents were reported in France. These included 21 reports of shootings andgrenade-throwing at mosques and other Islamic centres and 33 cases of threats and insults.[g]
On 8 February 2015 the Muslim Action Forum, an Islamic rights organization, orchestrated a mass demonstration outsideDowning Street in London. Placards read, "Stand up for the Prophet" and "Be careful with Muhammad".[217]
Shortly after gunfire occurred near apolice car,[218] theNational Gendarmerie Intervention Group locked down the area. A number of arrests were made, resulting in the seizure of seven Kalashnikovs, two.357 Magnumrevolvers and around 20 kilograms of drugs.[219] However, it soon became clear that the gunmen were not aiming at the police; instead, the gunfire was the result of aturf war between two gangs,[220] selling primarilycannabis andcocaine. Drug-traffickers as a whole in La Castellane are reported to make between 50,000 and 60,000euros a day as of 2015.
Shortly after the shooting, Manuel Valls called it an example of "apartheid", whereby some French citizens who live in such neighbourhoods feel excluded from society.
Reactions
French government
PresidentFrançois Hollande addressed media outlets at the scene of the shooting and called it "undoubtedly a terrorist attack", adding that "several [other] terrorist attacks were thwarted in recent weeks".[221] He later described the shooting as a "terrorist attack of the most extreme barbarity",[10] called the slain journalists "heroes",[222] and declared aday of national mourning on 8 January.[223]
At a rally in thePlace de la République in the wake of the shooting,mayor of ParisAnne Hidalgo said, "What we saw today was an attack on the values of our republic; Paris is a peaceful place. These cartoonists, writers and artists used their pens with a lot of humour to address sometimes awkward subjects and as such performed an essential function." She proposed thatCharlie Hebdo "be adopted as a citizen of honour" by Paris.[224]
Other media publications such as Germany'sBerliner Kurier and Poland'sGazeta Wyborcza reprinted cartoons fromCharlie Hebdo the day after the attack; the former had a cover of Muhammad readingCharlie Hebdo whilst bathing in blood.[236] At least three Danish newspapers featuredCharlie Hebdo cartoons, and the tabloidBT used one on its cover depicting Muhammad lamenting being loved by "idiots".[171] The German newspaperHamburger Morgenpost re-published the cartoons, and their office was fire-bombed.[237][238] In Russia,LifeNews andKomsomolskaya Pravda suggested that the US had carried out the attack.[239][240] "We are Charlie Hebdo" appeared on the front page ofNovaya Gazeta.[240] Russia's media supervision body,Roskomnadzor, stated that publication of the cartoons could lead to criminal charges.[241]
Russian PresidentVladimir Putin has sought to harness and direct Muslim anger over the Charlie Hebdo cartoons against the West.[242] Putin is believed to have backed protests by Muslims in Russia against Charlie Hebdo and the West.[243]
In China, the state-runXinhua advocated limiting freedom of speech, while another state-run newspaper,Global Times, said the attack was "payback" for what it characterised as Western colonialism.[244][245]
Media organisations carried out protests against the shootings.Libération,Le Monde,Le Figaro, and other French media outlets used black banners carrying the slogan "Je suis Charlie" across the tops of their websites.[246] The front page ofLibération's printed version was a different black banner that stated,"Nous sommes tous Charlie" ("We are all Charlie"), whileParis Normandie renamed itselfCharlie Normandie for the day.[171] The French and UK versions ofGoogle displayed ablack ribbon of mourning on the day of the attack.[10]
Ian Hislop, editor of the British satirical magazinePrivate Eye, stated, "I am appalled and shocked by this horrific attack – a murderous attack on free speech in the heart of Europe. ... Very little seems funny today."[247] The editor ofTitanic, a German satirical magazine, declared, "[W]e are scared when we hear about such violence. However, as a satirist, we are beholden to the principle that every human being has the right to be parodied. This should not stop just because of some idiots who go around shooting".[248] Many cartoonists from around the world responded to the attack onCharlie Hebdo by posting cartoons relating to the shooting.[249] Among them wasAlbert Uderzo, who came out of retirement at age 87 to depict his characterAstérix supportingCharlie Hebdo.[250] In Australia, what was considered the iconic national cartoonist's reaction[251] was a cartoon byDavid Pope in theCanberra Times, depicting a masked, black-clad figure with a smoking rifle standing poised over a slumped figure of a cartoonist in a pool of blood, with a speech balloon showing the gunman saying, "He drew first."[252]
In India,Mint ran the photographs of copies of Charlie Hebdo on their cover, but later apologised after receiving complaints from the readers.[253]The Hindu also issued an apology after it printed a photograph of some people holding copies of Charlie Hebdo.[254] The editor of the Urdu newspaperAvadhnama,Shireen Dalvi, which printed the cartoons faced several police complaints. She was arrested and released on bail. She began to wear the burqa for the first time in her life and went into hiding.[255][256]
Egyptian dailyAl-Masry Al-Youm featured drawings by young cartoonists signed with "Je suis Charlie" in solidarity with the victims.[257]Al-Masry al-Youm also displayed on their website a slide show of someCharlie Hebdo cartoons, including controversial ones. This was seen by analyst Jonathan Guyer as a "surprising" and maybe "unprecedented" move, due to the pressure Arab artists can be subject to when depicting religious figures.[258]
In Los Angeles, theJewish Journal weekly changed its masthead that week toJewish Hebdo and published the offending Muhammad cartoons.[259]
The Guardian reported that many Muslims and Muslim organisations criticised the attack while some Muslims support it and other Muslims stated they would only condemn it if France condemned the killings of Muslims worldwide".[260] Zvi Bar'el argued inHaaretz that believing the attackers represented Muslims was like believing thatRatko Mladić represented Christians.[261]Al Jazeera English editor and executive producer Salah-Aldeen Khadr attackedCharlie Hebdo as the work ofsolipsists, and sent out a staff-wide e-mail where he argued: "Defending freedom of expression in the face of oppression is one thing; insisting on the right to be obnoxious and offensive just because you can is infantile." The e-mail elicited different responses from within the organisation.[262][clarification needed]
Reporters Without Borders criticised the presence of leaders from Egypt, Russia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, saying, "On what grounds are representatives of regimes that are predators of press freedom coming to Paris to pay tribute toCharlie Hebdo, a publication that has always defended the most radical concept of freedom of expression?"[269]
Hacktivist groupAnonymous released a statement in which they offered condolences to the families of the victims and denounced the attack as an "inhuman assault" on freedom of expression. They addressed the terrorists: "[a] message for al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and other terrorists – we are declaring war against you, the terrorists." As such, Anonymous plans to target jihadist websites and social media accounts linked to supportingIslamic terrorism with the aim of disrupting them and shutting them down.[270]
TheLeague of Arab States released a collective condemnation of the attack.Al-Azhar University released a statement denouncing the attack, stating that violence was never appropriate regardless of "offence committed against sacred Muslim sentiments".[276] The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation condemned the attack, saying that it went against Islam's principles and values.[277]
Malek Merabet, the brother of Ahmed Merabet, a Muslim police officer killed in the shooting, condemned the terrorists who killed his brother: "My brother was Muslim and he was killed by two terrorists, by two false Muslims".[281] Just hours after the shootings, themayor of Rotterdam,Ahmed Aboutaleb, a Muslim born in Morocco, condemned Islamist extremists living in the West who "turn against freedom" and told them to "fuck off".[282]
Supporting the attack
Saudi-Australian Islamic preacherJunaid Thorne said: "If you want to enjoy 'freedom of speech' with no limits, expect others to exercise 'freedom of action'."[283]Anjem Choudary, a radical British Islamist, wrote an editorial inUSA Today in which he professes justification from the words of Muhammad that those who insult the prophets of Islam should face death, and that Muhammad should be protected to prevent further violence.[284]Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia[285] said that "as a result, it is assumed necessary in all cases to ensure that the pressure does not exceed the red lines, which will then ultimately lead to irreversible problems".[286]Bahujan Samaj Party leaderYaqub Qureishi, a Muslim MLA and former minister fromUttar Pradesh in India, offered a reward of₹510 million (US$8 million) to the perpetrators of theCharlie Hebdo shootings.[i] On 14 January, about 1,500 Filipino Muslims held a rally in Muslim-majorityMarawi in support of the attacks.[291]
Two Islamist newspapers in Turkey ran headlines that were criticised on social media as justifying the attack. TheYeni Akit ran an article entitled "Attack on the magazine that provoked Muslims", andTürkiye ran an article entitled "Attack on the magazine that insulted our Prophet".[298] Reuters reported a rally in support of the shootings in southern Afghanistan, where the demonstrators called the gunmen "heroes" who meted out punishment for the disrespectful cartoons. The demonstrators also protested Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's swift condemnation of the shootings.[299] Around 40 to 60[300] people gathered inPeshawar, Pakistan, to praise the killers, with a local cleric holding a funeral for the killers, lionising them as "heroes of Islam."[301][302]
Schools
Le Figaro reported that in aSeine-Saint-Denis primary school, up to 80% of the pupils refused[303] to participate in the minute of silence that the French government decreed for schools.[304] A student told a teacher, "I'll drop you with a Kalashnikov, mate." Other teachers were toldCharlie Hebdo "had it coming", and "Me, I'm for the killers". One teacher requested to be transferred.[303]They also reported that students from a vocational school in Senlis tried to attack and beat students from a neighbouring school while saying "we will kill more Charlie Hebdos". The incident is being investigated by authorities who are handling 37 proceedings of "terrorism glorification" and 17 proceedings of threats of violence in schools.[305]
La Provence reported that a fight broke out in the l'Arc à Orange high school during the minute of silence, as a result of a student post on a social network welcoming the atrocities. The student was later penalised for posting the message.[306]Le Point reported on the "provocations" at a grade school inGrenoble, and cited a girl who said "Madame, people won't let the insult of a drawing of the prophet pass by, it is normal to take revenge. This is more than a joke, it's an insult!"[307]
Le Monde reported that the majority of students they met at Saint-Denis condemned the attack. For them, life is sacred, but so is religion. Marie-Hélène, age 17, said "I didn't really want to stand for the one minute silence, I didn't think it was right to pay homage to a man who insulted Islam and other religions too". Abdul, age 14, said "of course everyone stood for the one minute silence, and that includes all Muslims... I did it for those who were killed, but not for Charlie. I have no pity for him, he had no respect for us Muslims". It also reported that for most students at the Paul Eluard high school in Saint-Denis, freedom of expression is perceived as being "incompatible with their faith". For Erica, who describes herself as Catholic, "there are wrongs on both sides". A fake bomb was planted in the faculty lounge at the school.[308]
France Télévisions reported that a fourth-grade student told her teacher, "We will not be insulted by a drawing of the prophet, it is normal that we take revenge." It also reported that the fake bomb contained the message "I Am Not Charlie".[309]
Salman Rushdie, who is on the al-Qaeda hit list[18][73] andreceived death threats over his novelThe Satanic Verses, said, "I stand withCharlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity ... religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today."[311]
Swedish artistLars Vilks, also on the al-Qaeda hit list[73] forpublishing his own satirical drawings of Muhammad, condemned the attacks and said that the terrorists "got what they wanted. They've scared people. People were scared before, but with this attack fear will grow even larger"[312] and that the attack "expose[s] the world we live in today".[313]
American journalistDavid Brooks wrote an article titled "I Am Not Charlie Hebdo" inThe New York Times, arguing that the magazine's humour was childish, but necessary as a voice of satire. He also criticised many of those in America who were ostensibly voicing support for free speech, noting that were the cartoons to be published in an American university newspaper, the editors would be accused of "hate speech" and the university would "have cut financing and shut them down." He called on the attacks to be an impetus toward tearing down speech codes.[314]
American linguist and philosopherNoam Chomsky views the popularisation of theJe suis Charlie slogan by politicians and media in the West as hypocritical, comparing the situation to theNATO bombing of the Radio Television of Serbia headquarters in 1999, when 16 employees were killed. "There were no demonstrations or cries of outrage, no chants of 'We are RTV'," he noted. Chomsky also mentioned other incidents where US military forces have caused higher civilian death tolls, without leading to intensive reactions such as those that followed the2015 Paris attacks.[315]
German politicianSahra Wagenknecht, the deputy leader of the partyDie Linke in the German Parliament, has compared the US drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Yemen with the terrorist attacks in Paris. ″If a drone controlled by the West extinguishes an innocent Arab or Afghan family, which is just a despicable crime as the attacks in Paris, and it should fill us with the same sadness and the same horror". We should not operate a double standard. Through the drone attacks had been "murdered thousands of innocent people", in the concerned countries, this created helplessness, rage and hatred: "Thereby we prepare the ground for the terror, we officially want to fight." The politician stressed that this war is also waged from German ground. Regarding the Afghanistan war with German participation for years, she said: "Even theBundeswehr is responsible for the deaths of innocent people in Afghanistan." As the most important consequence of the terrorist attacks in Paris, Wagenknecht demanded the end of all military operations of the West in the Middle East.[316][317]
Cartoonist-journalistJoe Sacco expressed grief for the victims in a comic strip, and wrote
but ... tweaking the noses of Muslims ... has never struck me as anything other than avapid way to use the pen ... I affirm our right to "take the piss" ... but we can try to think why the world is the way it is ... and [retaliating with violence against Muslims] is going to be far easier than sorting out how we fit in each other's world.[318]
Japanese film directorHayao Miyazaki criticised the magazine's decision to publish the content cited as the trigger for the incident. He said, "I think it's a mistake to caricaturise the figures venerated by another culture. You shouldn't do it." He asserted, "Instead of doing something like that, you should first make caricatures of your own country's politicians."Charlie Hebdo had already published numerous caricatures of European public officials in the years prior to the attack.[319][320]
Political scientistNorman Finkelstein criticised the Western response to the shooting, comparing Charlie Hebdo toJulius Streicher, saying "So two despairing and desperate young men act out their despair and desperation against this political pornography no different thanDer Stürmer, who in the midst of all of this death and destruction decide it's somehow noble to degrade, demean, humiliate and insult the people. I'm sorry, maybe it is very politically incorrect. I have no sympathy for [the staff of Charlie Hebdo]. Should they have been killed? Of course not. But of course, Streicher shouldn't have been hung. I don't hear that from many people."[321]
Social media
French Minister of the InteriorBernard Cazeneuve declared that by the morning of 9 January 2015, a total of 3,721 messages "condoning the attacks" had already been documented through the French governmentPharos system.[322][323]
In an open letter titled "To the Youth in Europe and North America",Iran's Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei urged young people in Europe and North America not to judge Islam by the attacks, but to seek their own understanding of the religion.[324]Holly Dagres ofAl-Monitor wrote that Khamenei's followers "actively spammed Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+ and even Tumblr with links" to the letter with the aim of garnering the attention of people in the West.[325]
On social media, thehashtag "#JeSuisAhmed" trended, a tribute to the Muslim policeman Ahmed Merabet, along with the quote "I am not Charlie, I am Ahmed the dead cop. Charlie ridiculed my faith and culture and I died defending his right to do so."[326][327][328]The Economist compared this to a quote commonly misattributed toVoltaire, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".[329]
^Woolf, Christopher (15 January 2015)."Where did the Paris attackers get their guns?".PRI The World. Minneapolis, US: Public Radio International. Retrieved16 January 2015.The weapons seen in various images of the attackers includeZastava M70 assault rifle;vz. 61 submachine gun; several Russian-designed Tokarev TT pistols and a grenade or rocket launcher – probably the Yugoslav M80 Zolja.
^"En direct: Des coups de feu au siège de Charlie Hebdo".Le Monde (in French).see comments at 13h09 and 13h47: "LeMonde.fr: @Antoine Tout ce que nous savons est qu'ils parlent un français sans accent." and "LeMonde.fr: Sur la même vidéo, on peut entendre les agresseurs. D'après ce qu'on peut percevoir, les hommes semblent parler français sans accent."
^[1] Charlie Hebdo shooting: Hamyd Mourad 'in shock' after wrongly linked to attack on newspaperAustralian Broadcasting Corporation 10 January 2015 – Retrieved 11 January 2015
^"Les images après l'attaque du commissariat à Paris".Le HuffPost (in French). 7 January 2016. Retrieved26 September 2020.un an jour pour jour après Charlie, le quartier de la Goutte-d'Or, dans le nord de Paris, a retenu son souffle après l'attaque d'un commissariat par un homme armé d'un couteau et d'un dispositif explosif factice.
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