Editorial Desk :Prime suspects Cherif and Said Kouachi were said to be involved in the attack on the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, an attack which has resulted in the deaths of Charlie Hebdo editor and cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier, 47, who had been living under police protection since receiving death threats. Others included people like cartoonists Jean Cabut, 76, and Philippe Honore, 73 – also economist and regular magazine columnist Bernard Maris, 68, Mustapha Ourrad, proof-reader, Elsa Cayat, psychoanalyst and columnist, the only woman killed.Witnesses say the gunmen shouted “we have avenged the Prophet Muhammad” and “we killed Charlie Hebdo”, as well as “God is Great” in Arabic. The attackers fled to northern Paris before abandoning their car and hijacking a Renault Clio, police say. The magazine’s office was firebombed in 2011. It had angered some Muslims by printing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad as part of its irreverent take on news and current affairs. People stood in silence in public spaces across France at midday (11:00 GMT) as the bells of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris and churches nationwide tolled in mourning. Following the shootings at the magazine, there appears to have been a number of revenge attacks on Muslims reported by French media, though nobody was hurt. Two shots were fired at a Muslim prayer room in the town of Port-la-Nouvelle in the southern region of Aude on Wednesday evening. A Muslim family was shot at in their car in Caromb, in the southern region of Vaucluse. Dummy grenades were thrown during the night at a mosque in Le Mans, Western France. The slogan “Death to Arabs” was daubed on the door of a mosque in Poitiers, Central France, during the night. A blast hit a kebab shop beside a mosque in Villefranche-sur-Saone in Central France.We condemn the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo. We have full empathy with the French people at this hours of sadness. We know how tolerant the French people are and hope they will see that they are not led by blind emotion against the Muslims. They have to weigh circumstances of religious provocation to Muslims by the weekly.As religious people, we are surprised that the French people and their government tolerated such an irresponsible weekly that feel free to denigrate Islam on a regular basis. Journalism is not for mentally sick people for spreading hatred. It is recognised in the Western press in dismay that Charlie Hebdo used to publish crude caricatures of Prophet Muhammad and the French government also advised long ago not to do that. But its editor defied unchecked. It must be clear that hatred against any religion is not journalism or civilized. In 2012, the Foreign Minister of France at the time asked the editor: Is it really sensible or intelligent to pour oil on fire? We want that the sensible and decent people of France will come forward bravely to assert that religious hatred is not journalism and the publication of the weekly is harming French’s image. Fanatical journalists must be ready to face the fanatics. We ourselves believe in tolerance even when others are nasty and disrespectful to our religion. But the journalists who have joined this noble profession must also think that everybody cannot be expected to be all tolerance. We firmly believe journalism is not for those who bear and spread hatred especially against rival religions. So let us not talk about free expression. Absolute such freedom will simply invite absolute violence.
