After its disgraceful mockery of Russian victims of terror, will Charlie Hebdo show the courage to mock its own countrymen?

Charlie Hebdo has been thrust into a crossroads.

In January of this year a pair of fanatical Islamists stormed the office of the satirical magazine and methodically slaughtered 11 people, including then editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier.

Much of the world stood in solidarity with the publication, outraged by such a brazen attack against defenseless civilians for the crime of speaking their minds, irregardless of how warped those minds may have been. Russians, like many other peoples, laid flowers in front of the French embassy in Moscow in a show of sympathy and support.

It only took Charlie Hebdo 11 months to show its gratitude for the gesture.

A little over a week ago, Hebdo cruelly and disgustingly mocked Russian vacationers who were blown out of the sky by bearded savages over the Sinai. Those savages were, of course, of the exact same ilk as those who slaughtered the publication's employees themselves.

The Russian government harshly and rightly denounced the mockery. Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: 'In our country this would be called blasphemy. It has nothing to do with democracy or self-expression. It is just blasphemy.'

Charlie Hebdo's editor, Gerard Briar - promoted after his boss was slaughtered in January - was quick to defend his offense, stating: 'We are a secular, democratic, and athiest newspaper. The term blasphemy has no meaning for us. The Kremlin is using this to detract attention from other problems.'

Disbelief in God demands disbelief in the Devil as well; and this is where Monsieur Briar runs into a problem. The Devil's existence does not require belief in it by a clique of charlatans in Paris. It never has. And yesterday the Devil turned round on France yet again when he sent a troupe of His faithful on a shooting and bombing rampage throughout Paris that claimed the lives of at least 120 people.

It is now time for Charlie Hebdo to maintain its stated principles and values. It has been given a golden opportunity by the God it doesn't believe in to truly shine - to show the world how absolutely committed it is to expressing its own unique interpretation of free speech.

It is time for Charlie Hebdo to mock their murdered French countrymen. It is time for Charlie Hebdo to cheapen their lives in cartoons. It is time for Charlie Hebdo to rub salt into the wounds of their families and to spit in their tears as they mourn. It is time for Charlie Hebdo to show just how dedicated they really are. Only this time, it may not be bearded, Quran-brandishing barbarians, but rather clean-shaven, snow-white, Catholic Gauls who come knocking.