By Peadar O’Maoileoin

Charlie Hebdo is a weekly magazine headquartered in Paris, France. The magazine was initially founded in 1969 and ran until 1981. It was then resurrected again in 1992 and has been operating since that date.

Stephane Charbonnier, the magazine’s editor since 2009 was murdered today, along with eleven others, two of whom were police officers. A group of Islamofascists, offended by the magazine’s caricature of Islam, carried out the attack and were heard yelling the Prophet Muhammad’s name.

Charbonnier and his staff have been receiveing death threats for quite a while, and instead of capitulating to blackmail they stood by their convictions, and died as a result.

This is not just an attack on a magazine in the capital city of France; it is an attack on western civilization and European democracy. It is an attack that has been going on for some years, as I’m sure you’re well aware.

Kurt Westergaard, the famous Danish cartoonist has been living in fear since drawing a caricature of Mohammad in 2005. When said cartoon was published, protests took place all over the world and Danish people were murdered for the crime of being Danish. When this happened, you’ll recall the condemnation was not for the riots in the street and the murder of innocent civilians, it was for publishing the cartoons in the first place.

The same condemnation is seeping out through the cracks in our society today. Thankfully Twitter and the online world are alive with support for the massacred cartoonists, but said backing far from unanimous.

I have witnessed people say the magazine staff had it coming, they were playing with fire and deserved it. Yes, deserved it! I have also witnessed people say anyone who continues to draw these cartoons, or oppose Islam deserve to die as well.

The cartoonists bodies are cold less than a few hours, and people feel the need to chime in and say the problem is western civilsation not the Islamic threat to it.

Blame the cartoonists for expressing freedom of speech.

Belittle the cartoonists work and say they had it coming.

Well then, these imbeciles can cower away in the corner and make all the concessions they want to Islamic extremists. I will be up front fighting this, because I am not a shameful coward. I will not capitulate.

To paraphrase the late Christopher Hitchens, the barbarians are not at the gate, they are already here and this sort of capitulating mentality is holding the door open for them.