Cartoon showing ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi giving a New Year’s message

Today, Wednesday, January 7, 2015, gunmen attached the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and 12 people have been killed. The magazine tweeted a political cartoon [above] this morning but they have been publishing satirical material for years.

The offices of the weekly magazine were fire-bombed in November 2011 after publishing a special edition with cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Readers were threatened with ‘a hundred lashes if you don’t die laughing.’ Six days later, a front page depicted a Charlie Hebdo cartoonist kissing a bearded Muslim man in front of the charred aftermath of the bombing. The headline read: L’Amour plus fort que la haine (Love is stronger than hate).

Read more: Stéphane Mazurier, Bête, méchant et hebdomadaire : une histoire de Charlie Hebdo, 1969-1982 (Paris: Buchet-Chastel, 2009). Firestone Library (F) PN5190.C5 M397 2009

Sébastien Fontenelle, Même pas drôle : Philippe Val, de Charlie hebdo à Sarkozy (Paris : Libertalia, c2010). Firestone Library (F) PN5183.V28 F66 2010

Pacôme Thiellement, Tous les chevaliers sauvages : tombeau de l’humour et de la guerre (Paris : Rey, c2012). Firestone Library (F) PN5190.H37 T55 2012