Suspects Identified On French Newspaper Attack

                                        The Attack On A French Newspaper

Paris-- French officials have identified three suspects in the tragic shooting attack on a satirical newspaper that killed 12 people Wednesday. Four of the magazine's well-known cartoonists, including its editor, were among those killed, as well as two police officers. Authorities said, one of the officers was shot dead on a sidewalk outside the newspaper.

President Francois Hollande, visiting the scene of France's deadliest such attack in more than half a century, called the assault on the weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo "an act of exceptional barbarism."

   Fears had been running high in France and elsewhere in Europe that jihadis returning from conflicts in Syria and Iraq would stage attacks at home. Two officials identified the suspects as French brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, in their early thirties, and 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad, whose nationality is yet to be released.

Heavily armed police moved into the city of Reims, in France's Champagne country east of Paris, apparently searching for the suspects. Video from BFM-TV showed police dressed in white apparently taking samples inside an apartment. It was not immediately clear who lived there.

One of the police officials said they were linked to a Yemeni terrorist network, and Cedric Le Bechec, a witness who encountered the escaping gunmen, quoted the attackers as saying: "You can tell the media that it's al-Qaeda in Yemen."

Cherif Kouachi was sentenced to 18 months in prison after being convicted of terrorism charges in 2008 for helping funnel fighters to Iraq's insurgency. He said he was outraged at the torture of Iraqi inmates at the U.S. prison at Abu Ghraib near Baghdad.

The masked, black-clad men with assault rifles stormed the offices near Paris' Bastille monument in the Wednesday noontime attack on the publication, which had long drawn condemnation and threats-- it was firebombed in 2011-- for its depictions of Islam especially the Prophet Muhammad, although it also satirized other religions and political figures.

Shouting "Allahu akbar!" as they fired, the men used fluent, unaccented French as they called out the names of specific employees.

After fleeing, the attackers collided with another vehicle, then carjacked another car before disappearing in broad daylight, Molins said. Among the dead: the paper's editor, Stephane Charbonnier.

The staff was in an editorial meeting and the gunmen headed straight for Charbonnier--widely known by his pen name Charb-- killing him and his police bodyguard first, said Christophe Crepin, a police union spokesman.

Charlie Hebdo has been repeated threatened for its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and other sketches. One cartoon, released in this week's issue and titles "Still No Attacks in France," had a caricature of a jihadi fighter saying "Just wait-- we have until the end of January to present our New Year's wishes." Charb was the artist.

Ina somber address to the nation Wednesday night, Hollande pledged to hunt down the killers, and pleaded with his compatriots to come together in a time of insecurity and suspicion.

"Let us unite, and we will win, " he said. "Vive la France!"

Both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have repeatedly threatened to attack France, which is conducting airstrikes against extremists in Iraq and fighting Islamic militants in Africa.

                             My Take From A Muslim Perspective

Evidently this attack was a tragic to all of us around the world both to Muslims and non-Muslims. As many Islamic scholars and I have previously said, Islam condemns the killing of any innocent people no matter what faith group they belong to. I am angry that the men whoever they maybe acted such way. Everyone should understand by now that Islam is a religion of peace and does not agree upon terror and mass killings. 

No religion teaches terror! But people need to understand that there are many other terrorist people of different religions such as the Ku Klux Klan who also work hard to terrorize people of different race and religions and still no one asks are Christians terrorists. I'm really tired of people asking if Islamist are Muslims. Is that even necessary! News channels like CNN and FOX News invite Muslim speakers to answer questions they have for Muslims worldwide. What's the purpose of bringing such guests to your shows if people still have the same bias towards Muslims. As a matter of fact when Muslims condemn acts like the Paris attack; no one wants to listen but want to continue bringing up all the bad ideas Muslims are portrayed as. Listen when we speak the truth and know that there's only one Islam in which terror and hatred has nothing to do with it! There's no such thing as moderate Muslims; Muslims are those who say Islam is their religion and promote peace and love for humanity so that God can hopefully lead us to a great place.

Also, I know some Muslims may say they don't mind the cartoon depiction of Prophet Muhammad on a newspaper or on shows like South Park I believe the show was called. But I personally don't agree with that. The Prophet is my inspiration and role model. Even as Muslims, filmmakers make movies of the prophet making sure there is no display of how the Prophet may have looked like. I believe that's a sign of disrespect towards him. I can understand why the suspects have done what they did. Let me make it clear that I would never try to kill someone for that, but let them know that we don't want such depiction. 

  As a person who literally tries to live their life as the Prophet did, I know he wouldn't act in that way. The Prophet would've talked the cartoonist out of drawing such cartoon or simply ignore it. Most likely just ignore it. Please readers understand that most Muslims like me would not try to kill people for such thing. When I heard of the cartoon of Prophet Muhammad, I was angry but I thought ignoring it was the best way to go. I always try to act according to what the Prophet would do. He was the kindest person you could ever imagine and had good morals and values. That's why he was named the most influential person of all times both spiritual and politically. Whenever I'm feeling well and have school off on Fridays, I always attend Juma Prayer at the Mosque to learn more on how to be a better Muslim.

   Yes! At Juma prayer on Fridays Muslims attend to listen to lectures which persuade them to better themselves and gain the love of God. I learn something new every time and that's what motivates me to continue to speak up for others as an activist. Please keep the name Islam from the description of people who have nothing but hate. It's also being said that this attack is anti-Semitic which is very weird to say. This clearly shows the lack of knowledge of Islam the suspects had because Ismail was the extended great grandfather of the Prophet Muhammad and Ismail's brother Isaac who was Jewish was a relative of the Prophet. So when you hear a Muslim who has hate towards Jews, they're pretty much offending the Prophet himself. This whole attack is an attack on the Prophet because he had nothing but love for people no matter what religion or ethnicity.

  Some of the hostages of the Kroscher market were Jewish. For those who don't know this, our prophets Isa(Jesus) and Musa(Moses) were Jewish. This brings an attack on Muslims like myself. We love our prophets like they did themselves and respect each and everyone of them. If those terrorist groups were smart and even Muslims, they would've known that we had Jewish prophets who they are disrespecting because of the heinous act they have done. Let this be a sign to everyone that those horrible guys out there are not educated what-so-ever and are just cold blooded killers who belong to no society! Peace.

The Associated Press

French newspaper attack: Police hunt for 3 suspects in shootings that killed 12

Nola/ New York Times

2015/01/07