Ethan Zuckerman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Consider two tragic events that took place last week. A small cell of Islamic terrorists attacked cartoonists at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and shoppers in a Paris supermarket, killing 17 people…
One who won’t be put in soumission.
Marcial Guillen/EPA
Michel Houellebecq’s Soumission has been greeted by a predictable mix of anger and uncritical bias toward the author, a typical reception for the most controversial French author of the past two decades…
How dissent is being dealt with in Egypt
Abd El Ghany/Reuters
The deadly attack in Paris by French Islamists with ties to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) provokes several basic responses. One major response is a broad affirmation that the actions of the violent…
The values the French hold dear are not easy, nor are they unstained by violence.
EPA/Etienne Laurent
Beyond the tourist fantasy of the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, France today is a fabulously colourful mixture of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists. This is the situation all over Europe…
After three deranged men murdered 17 people in Paris over the course of three days, millions took to the streets to express solidarity with the victims’ families and friends, intolerance of hatred and…
France has had a long and troubled relationship with its Muslim populations. French armies faced down Muslim leaders during the expansion of the country’s empire in Africa in the 19th century. And in the…
There was no sense of recrimination at the Paris solidarity march in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
AAP/Francois Pauletto
On Sunday, millions of people turned out to reaffirm the unity of France in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack. About 1.5 million people came to the march in Paris. For two hours before the march started…
A wave of small-scale assaults has shaken public confidence in governments’ capacity to protect citizens from terrorism.
AAP/Yann Korbi
The Charlie Hebdo massacre and the subsequent attack on the Hyper Cache kosher market in France are merely the latest and most bloody jihadist atrocities to have traumatised the West. From Ottawa to Sydney…
Disillusioned young people are being conned into fighting for a global army.
EPA
After killing 12 people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi were heard proclaiming, “we have avenged the Prophet Muhammad”. Amateur footage also revealed the killers invoking…
Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has argued for Australia’s racial discrimination laws to be revisited in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Let’s be clear about one thing as the loony right once more revisits with slavering lips their thwarted desire to allow racial vilification to run untrammelled through Australian society. Nothing that…
Yemen faces an ongoing insurgency by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) – one of al-Qaeda’s most active and dangerous branches.
EPA/Abdul-Rahman Hwais
As the dust settles on a series of terrorist attacks in France, people will now look to understand the broader players of this grim drama. From their own statements and from external sources, it appears…
This candlelit rally in Tunisia was one of the many condemnations from Muslim nations of the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo.
EPA/Mohamed Messara
The tradition of freedom of expression on religious matters is not quite so venerable as many seem to imagine in the outcry at the killing of Charlie Hebdo journalists and cartoonists in Paris. While modern…
Papers across France have shown their solidarity.
Sebastien Nogier/EPA
Jean-Marie Charon, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)
The shock across France at the terrorist attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the hostage situations that have followed have been met with incomprehension. The barbarity of the…
Laughter and violence have two things in common: they’re both non-verbal and they both occur when words fail.
Cloud Mine Amsterdam/Shutterstock
It should come as no surprise that comedians would feel threatened by the attack on Charlie Hebdo: the freedom to offend is the source of their livelihood, and many who have offended have been threatened…
A man holds a placard reading “I am Charlie” to pay tribute to the victims following a shooting by gunmen at the offices of weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
Reuters
The media spotlight on Cherif Kouachi’s life rekindles questions about prisons and radicalization. As an alleged participant of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Kouachi has seemingly led many lives. In one incarnation…
French police storm the Jewish supermarket where hostages were held.
Ian Langsdon/EPA
The hunt for the two killers who attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo is over, after a three-day chase and a standoff at a warehouse outside Paris. The two suspects were killed, and the hostage they took…
Solidarity with France and Charlie Hebdo in Taipei.
Pichi Chuang/Reuters
In his 1998 novel, The Elementary Particles, Michel Houellebecq argued that Charlie Hebdo played a pivotal role in the redefinition of social values in post-1968 France. For self-appointed troublemaker…
Stéphane Charbonnier (Charb) lost his life in the Paris shooting.
thierry ehrmann
They think and work differently, cartoonists. Anyone who has spent any time in an editorial office will know that cartoonists dream and draw on their own, working to the rhythm of their thoughts – if they…
Award-winning French author Michel Houellebecq is no stranger to controversy.
kojoku/Shutterstock
When gunmen (thought to be radicalized Muslims) burst into the offices of Charlie Hebdo on the morning of January 7, the front page of the satirical newspaper’s most recent edition featured a caricature…
Nice residents gather in solidarity with Charlie Hebdo.
Sebastian Nogier/EPA
On the streets of France there is a strong public response to the murders of 12 people at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. But we do not yet know the medium to long-term consequences the…