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The two suspects — one a former pizza deliveryman who had a prior terror conviction and a fondness for rap —should be considered “armed and dangerous,” French police said in a bulletin.[/np_storybar]

As Gautama Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Moses, King David, Zoroaster, Osirus, Zeus and Odin are fair game for mockery, so should the prophet Muhammad be. As other major figures of world history or spirituality are depicted, in drawings, photographs and cartoons, so should Muhammad be. As Christians, Jews, Hindus, Wiccans, agnostics and atheists are subjected to unkind gusts of skepticism from people who neither share nor understand their faith, so must Muslims be. Because the common human right to free thought and expression trumps any individual’s desire to not be offended. Full stop.

There really cannot be any middle ground. The Islamic State lummoxes in their black hoods, mewling about their lost iPods as they embrace their retrograde death cult, can’t kill the whole world. Yes, I can poke fun at your beliefs, just as you can poke fun at mine. I can be a dork about it. I can make an utter ass of myself, and of you, as the Monty Python crew did so brilliantly with Roman Catholicism in their 1983 film, The Meaning of Life. I can do all this, without fear of you throwing a stone, or a punch, much less your shooting me dead. Unless the foregoing is true, and can remain true, then democracy as we’ve known it is on the way out, or gone.

In the wake of the slaughter Wednesday of 12 people at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine, much attention has fallen on the magazine’s controversial cartoons, and whether re-publishing them was or is wise. Some of the images, in addition to being blasphemous according to conservative Islam, are vulgar and crude. Quite obviously, there’s the practical consideration: Publishing such material can get your offices burnt, incite a mob – as occurred in 2005-06 following publication of the Danish Muhammad cartoons – or get you killed. Some outlets chose to publish only pixelated versions. Others published some images but not all, leaving aside the cruder ones.