CHARLIE HEBDO

Paris Attack
Literary Review
University of Texas at El Paso
RWS 1302
Mayra Torres

Introduction

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On January, 2015 France experienced a series of attacks, which people related as

terrorists attacks. The most controversial attack was made on Charlie Hebdo a satirical magazine
that had been issuing cartoons that were not so good for everyone. These cartoons were seen as
racist and upsetting for many cultures that were affected by these, one of them being the Islamic
religion. The attack at Charlie Hebdo had as a result of 12 people dead including the top editor,
important cartoonists and police officers. After the shooting the masked men escaped leaving the
city in terror. The Brothers were caught later on and were dead, however the terror did not left
the city or the world. People are now terrified thinking of more attacks that could come. The city
of Paris marched and showed posters to the world in relation to the recent attack on Charlie
Hebdo. The attack penetrated many people lives, since now he realized what people are really
capable of when they feel threatened and offended.
Now, people are questioning the reality of the attack, and want to know much more that what is
being seen on television and discussed on social media. People want to know more about what
happened behind the scenes, what signals could have been caught to prevent the attack or what
can be done to prevent further attacks. This would be the purpose of this paper to inform society
on what has happened behind what is clearly known already. For this there are three research
questions to further expand the knowledge of the reader, these are:
1. Could the attack have been prevented?
2. Who influenced the attackers?
3. Was it worth killing people over the cartoon made at Charlie Hebdo?
These three questions will help the reader into breaking down the information presented and
narrowing it down for better understanding, as well as gaining further knowledge on what went
through the minds of the attackers and why was the attack not prevented.

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Could the attack have been prevented?

There are now many claims that security officers could have prevented the attack,
however it was hard for the security to read this signs. Paris was already warned at first that they
were in danger of a terrorist attack a week before it happened however there is no evidence that
French securities did anything to prevent it. There is also more evidence in hand that they were
being warned of this attack, according to the police there was a tweet posted by a Islam fighter
linked to British jihadists fighting in Syria and speeches by radical Islamic clerics Anjem
Choudary and Omar Bakri tweeted a curt and cryptic message that read: Snail eaters minutes
later after the attack, the account, which has been taken down, boasted: You heard it here first.
#SnailEaters ate lead. This was the second tweet posted by the same account that was taken
down before.
French police was also very aware of who the brothers in the attack were, they had
known these two Islam for a long time and they had a record for being problematic. All three had
well-documented ties to extremist networks and Islamist preachers, and their journeys to
radicalization had been keenly mapped by the legal system. These guys were known to be bad,
and the French had tabs on them for a while, an American official speaking anonymously to the
New York Times said of the two Kouachi brothers. At some point, though, they allocated
resources differently. They moved on to other targets. French Interior Minister Bernard
Cazeneuve told reporters that the brothers were being watched over, but there were no elements
at the time to warrant starting an inquiry." However if they would have been kept in serious
watch and in the police was really looking over this persons there is no possible way for them to
have gone away with the attack. The police had these guys on target but they let them go. These
two brothers arrived in Oman on July 25, 2011, and from Oman they were smuggled into Yemen,

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where they stayed for two weeks, a senior Yemeni security official said, as reported by Al
Jazeera. They met [Al-Qaeda preacher] Anwar al-Awlaki and then they were trained for three
days in the deserts of Marib on how to fire a gun. They returned to Oman and they left Oman on
Aug. 15, 2011, to go back to France. A video released on Sunday shows Coulibaly who killed
four hostages when he held up a kosher grocery store in Paris on Friday pledging his allegiance
to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, potentially pointing to the groups involvement in the
attacks. No matter how many resources you throw at it, youre never going to be able to
insulate Europe from the Middle East." (Davidson, 2015) A police officer said this speaking to
the press; he knew that no matter the attack could have not been prevented.
In the on the interviews Professor Keich debates that the attack could have been
prevented if the security had been maintained, It could have been prevented had the publisher
increased, or at the very least maintained security. Particularly, in sight of previous threats to the
publications editors he argues along with the first article, that security at Charlie Hebdo was
lowered and they had been ignoring the threats. However on the second Interview done to
Patricia Valero she argues the opposite, that the attack could have not been prevented she said
Once people get it into their minds that they have been disrespected bad things will happen she
argues that even if they had all the security measures ready and police had caught all the signs,
Muslims had felt insulted already and they were going to attack no matter what.
Who influenced the attackers?
As an addition on trying to understand the why did the attack happened, the attacker had
to have been influenced by some other higher force. The latest evidence suggests that the attacks
were made possible by personal connections between the two sets of attackers, Islamic State-

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inspired Amedy Coulibaly and the brothers al-Qaeda-linked Chrif and Said Kouachi, who were
both influenced by the France-based alQaeda recruiter Djamel Beghal (Smith, 2015). Further
muddying the waters, Islamic State-supporter Amedy Coulibaly said in a video before the attacks
that he had coordinated the Paris operations with the Kouachi brothers and AQAP militants
(Levy, 2015). However, senior AQAP official Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, who claimed responsibility
for the Charlie Hebdo attack, said it was a mere coincidence that the operations of the Kouachi
brothers had coincided with the attack by Ahmed Coulibaly (Akkoc, 2015). It was therefore no
surprise that al-Ansi was criticized in the Islamic States Dabiq magazine as being hizbiyyin
(partisan) in favor of al-Qaeda. Dabiqs also said that although Coulibaly, who attacked the
Parisian Jewish targets, helped the brothers financially, their operations were different. These
different views may reflect that among would-be militants in France, the differences between the
Islamic State and alQaeda are seen as less important than to those in the Middle East. So there is
no clear answer as to who was the big one behind the attack. There is clear evidence that the
Middle East was behind it but in between alQaeda and Islam there is a difference. However, in
the previous interview done to two teachers both agreed that radical Muslim groups were behind
the attack which could be either alQuaeda or Islam.
Was it worth killing people over the cartoons made at Charlie Hebdo?
First of all, there are two different viewpoints as whether it was a mistake by Charlie
Hebdo to use these cartoons. That according to many the satirical cartoons were racists and
terrorist. Many have raised questions regarding the cartoons, including a sense that their
depictions of Islam and colored people have been insensitive, even racist. This provoked the
terrorist groups to go one with the attack.

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According to one of the interviewees Mr. Keich, it is needed to understand the meaning
of the cartoons, a great amount of people do not understand these and this is why they are seen as
racist. It makes things easy to understand if it is started with a cover that is not specifically about
Islam but it has the one with most critics as one of the magazine's most obviously racist. Through
analyzing this image it will be easier to understand how many saw the magazine as racist when it
really was not. For the purpose of this project, this will relate as how Muslims were offended by
the satirical cartoons. However, it was never the intention of the magazine to be racist.
Figure 1. This was the most controversial cartoon made at Charlie Hebdo .

Charlie Hebdo. (2014). Boko Haram's sex slaves are angry [cartoon], Retrieved March 20,
2014, from http://www.quora.com/What-was-the-context-of-Charlie-Hebdos-cartoon-depictingBoko-Haram-sex-slaves-as-welfare-queens

In this picture it is

being showed a group of

headscarf-wearing, pregnant Nigerian women shouting "Don't touch our welfare!" The title
reads, "Boko Haram's sex slaves are angry."(Fisher, 2015). For many people then, it appears that
the magazine is ridiculing Nigerian human trafficking victims as welfare queens; the outrage
among non-French readers. But when one really looks for the true meaning of the image, this is
not what it is trying to portray. It's saying the opposite of critics' interpretations. French satire, as
Vox's Libby Nelson explained, is not as straightforward as it would seem; the joke is played on

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two layers. The second layer has to do with French domestic politics: Charlie Hebdo is a leftist
magazine that supports welfare programs, but the French political right tends to oppose welfare
for immigrants, whom they characterize as greedy welfare queens cheating the system.
What this cover actually says, then, is that the French political right is so monstrous when
it comes to welfare for immigrants, that they want the reader to believe that even Nigerian
migrants escaping Boko Haram sexual slavery are just here to steal welfare. Charlie Hebdo is
actually stating the idea that Boko Haram sex slaves are welfare queens, not endorsing it
.That's what's tricky about two-layer satire like Charlie Hebdo's: the joke only works if you see
both layers, which often requires knowledge of French politics or culture. If the reader fails to
see that layer, then the covers can seem to say something very different and very racist.
Some argue that any questioning of Charlie Hebdo's cartoons implies sympathy with the
terrorists or is tantamount to criticism of free speech itself, but this is a fallacy. One of the
interviewees Patricia Valero, said Sometimes people get it into their minds that they have been
disrespected and are justified in their actions something WILL happen She then explain that
Muslims felt very offended with the cartoons and had already in mind an attack on France, they
saw this cartoons as a justification to their actions. However, she also mentioned that the violent
reaction to something that is offensive is never that right reaction. As a society, have all agreed
that there can never be any justification for such an attack and that free speech is an irreducible
value. (Fisher, 2015)
Conclusion
The issue here is that a religious group planned an attack on a satirical magazine called
Charlie Hebdo. This had as a result twelve deaths including important cartoonists for the

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magazine. The main shooter the two brothers died after the attack, but this did not end the fear
from the people. The attack had a huge impact on the world population, particularly in Europe.
They now feel threatened by what can happen next. People think that if this kind of attack was
not prevented once, what are the chances of it being prevented again. One of the biggest
questions is what went through these peoples heads when they did it. This is the purpose of this
paper, to go beyond the obvious and by looking for who influence them, or if the cartoons were
really offending this group and they used it as a justification. Whit this knowledge the reader can
understand in a way what they were thinking.
This research is to provide further knowledge on the minds of the reader. To know more
about this topic, that has caused a hug controversy in the world. However there is new
information being released daily or older information that can answer questions that are still
unanswered. With the knowledge acquired from reading this, the reader can know look deeper
for more information, and it will be easier to understand it with a base on the topic. Also, the
reader will be able to take a stand in the issues that are still concerning the population, because
there is no more knowledge on the topic and the different stands that people are taking. Knowing
the information makes it better to take a stand where the truth is and not just go with what is
being heard elsewhere.

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References
Smith, M.S. (2015) Islam is the Religion of the Sword Not Pacifism, DABIQ, vol. 7. Retrieved
from http://insidethejihad.com/2015/02/dabiq-7/#!prettyphoto/0/
Levy, B.H. (2015) The Miracle of January 11, When Millions Marched For France & Freedom,
The Daily Beast. Retrieved from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/13/themiracle-of-january-11-when-millions-marched-for-france-freedom.html
Akkoc, R. (2015) Charlie Hebdo: new cover featuring Prophet Mohammed launched - as it
happened January 14, The Telegraph. Retrieved form
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11344044/Charlie-Hebdonew-cover-featuring-Prophet-Mohammed-launched.html
Davidson, C. (2015) Paris Hebdo attacks: Could French authorities have stopped them?, The
Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved from
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/0112/Paris-Hebdo-attacks-Could-Frenchauthorities-have-stopped-them-video
Guimelli, C., Lo Monaco, G., Deschamps, J.C. (2010) The lawsuit against Charlie Hebdo
and its effects on the social representations of the Muslim Community, International
reviews of social psychology, Vol.23, 5-36. Retrieved from
http://www.cairn.info/resume.php?ID_ARTICLE=RIPSO_234_0005

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Doward, J. (2015) Charlie Hebdo: could security services have prevented Paris attacks? The
Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/10/charlie-hebdosecurity-services-paris-attacks
Taibi, C. (2015) These Are The Charlie Hebdo Cartoons That Terrorists Thought Were Worth
Killing Over, The Huffingpost. Retrieved from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/07/charlie-hebdo-cartoons-paris-frenchnewspaper-shooting_n_6429552.html
Cole, J. (2015) Sharpening Contradictions: Why al-Qaeda attacked Satirists in Paris, Informed
Comment, thought on the Middle East, History and Religion. Retrieved from
http://www.juancole.com/2015/01/sharpening-contradictions-satirists.html

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Appendix

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