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| Suspected shooter in Paris Massacre |
Religion - or in this case, conservative Islam - has added new names to the death toll that goes hand in glove with religion over the centuries. For centuries, those deemed guilty of blasphemy or who refused to live by certain creeds and beliefs have been murdered by the "true believers" who, due to their own psychological issues, religious brainwashing, and/or ignorance, cannot stand to see anything or anyone challenge or mock their delusional fairy tale like religious myths. I increasingly view deep religious fundamentalism to be a form of mental illness. The
New York Times has new details on the cowardly mass killing at the offices of French satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, in Paris. Here are highlights:
The terrorist attack by masked gunmen on the newspaper, Charlie Hebdo,
left 12 people dead — including the top editor, prominent cartoonists
and police officers — and was among the deadliest in postwar France.
Officials said late Wednesday that the suspects had been identified and
that two were brothers. They were identified as Said and Cherif Kouachi,
32 and 34, and Hamyd Mourad, 18. French news reports said the brothers
had been born in Paris, raising the prospect that homegrown Muslim
extremists were responsible.
Officials and witnesses said at least two gunmen carried out the attack
with automatic weapons and an unusual degree of military-style
precision. President François Hollande of France called it a display of
extraordinary “barbarism” that was “without a doubt” an act of
terrorism.
The
Paris prosecutor, François Molins, said witnesses said the attackers
had screamed “Allahu akbar!” or “God is great!” during the attack, which
the police characterized as a “slaughter.”
Corinne
Rey, a cartoonist known as Coco, who was at the newspaper office during
the attack, told Le Monde that the attackers spoke fluent French and
had said they were part of Al Qaeda.
An
amateur video of the assailants’ subsequent gunfight with the police,
showed the men shouting, “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad. We have
killed Charlie Hebdo!” The video, the source of which could not be
verified, also showed the gunmen killing a police officer as he lay
wounded on a nearby street.
The victims at Charlie Hebdo included some of the country’s most revered and iconoclastic cartoonists. The weekly’s editorial director
, Stéphane Charbonnier,
had already been received light police protection after earlier
threats, the police and the prosecutor said. An officer assigned to
guard the newspaper’s offices and its top editor was among the victims.
Mr.
Molins, the prosecutor, said that two men armed with AK-47 rifles and
wearing black hoods, had forced their way into the weekly’s offices
about 11:30 a.m., firing at people in the lobby, before making their way
to the newsroom on the second floor, interrupting a news meeting and
firing at the assembled journalists.
The
attackers then fled outside, where they clashed three times with the
police, shooting one officer as he lay on the ground on a nearby street.
One journalist who was at the weekly during the attack and asked that
her name not be used, texted a friend after the shooting: “I’m alive.
There is death all around me. Yes, I am there. The jihadists spared me.”
What's frightening is that religious extremists - both Christian and Muslim - want to deprive others of freedom of expression and freedom of religion - and/or freedom from religion. Their beliefs are so fragile and psychotic that they cannot tolerate anyone who suggests that their beliefs are based on lies or myths. These religious fundamentals deserve no deference, no respect and their belief systems need to be irradiated.
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| The publisher of Charlie Hebdo who was murdered in Paris |
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| Four of the murder victims |
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