From Paris with News

Photo by the Examiner.com

By: Zachary Rosen '16

Most everyone has been made aware, in some form or another, of the terrible events in Paris not long ago. A group of armed men attacked a small satirical newspaper (Charlie Hebdo), killing a total of ten editors and two security guards and sparking the popular tweet "Je Suis Charlie" (or the English equivalent, "I am Charlie"). They were pursued over the course of a few days into the North of France, where they were eventually killed by police forces. A separate individual working with them killed a policewoman in Paris. He was later killed after taking control of a Kosher deli and killing several shoppers. Charlie Hebdo was originally an incredibly small paper that produced around 60,000 copies per circulation, and was in danger of closing because of such a low circulation amount. In light of the shootings, they ran out of the first three million copies they printed in a manner of hours and are now printing more. The paper had actually been fire bombed by extremist several years ago for printing an issue many muslims considered insulting.

There have been a few developments since then. France has moved to deploy a total of 10,000 troops domestically to protect Jewish schools, synagogues, and mosques throughout the country (in fear of both terroristic and retaliatory actions). For some background, France has the highest Jewish population in Europe (around 500,000), yet has been dealing with a huge immigration problem whereby Jews are moving out of the country (many to Israel); hopefully, this move might provide a sense of security to counteract this outward flow.

The attack itself has been claimed by Al Qaeda Yemen, a Yemeni offshoot of the famous terrorist organization, though there is some curiosity as to the truth of that statement. It is also believed that the girlfriend of one of the shooters made her way to Syria several days before the attack (by way of Turkey).

Overall, the actions of these shooters have been decried by press and governments the world over, including the vast majority of Middle Eastern groups. There is also quite a lot of fear that these actions might exacerbate the already elevated levels of anti-Islamic sentiment prevalent in Europe. The Pegida movement in Germany is a good example, opposed to what it considers to be the islamization of Europe. In the wake of these shootings, leaders of many nations have joined marches for toleration and unity in an event to quell public anger or any retaliatory actions against Muslims (i.e. Angela Merkel joined an anti-Pegida protest a few days ago).

In the most recent news, there was a police standoff between suspected terrorists in Belgium; both the suspects were killed after opening fire on police. There is still an investigation as to whether they were connected to the Charlie Hebdo shootings.