January 23, 2015

The latest issue of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which included yet another caricature of the Prophet Muhammad, sparked violent protests in Africa and the Middle East this week. In Niger, authorities reported that 10 people were killed and some 170 others injured in Muslim attacks on Christians. Demonstrators burned Bibles and torched churches and the homes of Christians. In the Jordanian capital Amman, some 2,000 demonstrators, organized by the Muslim Brotherhood, clashed as they marched on the French embassy, protesting against the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo. In Gaza, an estimated 200 radical Islamists protested outside the French cultural center in Gaza City, chanting “Leave Gaza, you French, or we will slaughter you by cutting your throats.” In Karachi, Pakistan, police used tear gas and turned water cannons on protesters outside the French consulate.

On January 7, two brothers, armed with assault rifles, attacked the Paris office of the magazine Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 people. The attackers were heard shouting, “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad” and “God is Great” in Arabic as they fled the scene of the crime. French President Francois Hollande described the massacre as a terrorist attack “of exceptional barbarity.” The satirical weekly was firebombed in November 2011, one day after it ran a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.