The editor of the satirical Paris publication Charlie Hebdo, who was assassinated along with 12 colleagues Wednesday morning by Islamic terrorists, had offered a deeply principled defense of his publication of provocative cartoons that had offended some radical Muslims,
Mediaite reports.
“We didn’t feel like we could kill somebody with a pen,” said editor Stephane Charbonnier in a statement two years ago about the cartoons to the French newspaper Le Monde.
He added, in a now-chilling defense: “This may sound pompous, but I prefer to die standing up than live on my knees.”
Charbonnier, who had reportedly been on a Muslim extremist most-wanted list, was gunned down in a brazen assault at the publication's Paris office. The masked assailants, caught on video, remain on the loose,
The Huffington Post reported as world outrage continued over the violence, described by French President Francois Hollande as "a terrorist attack, without a doubt."
Fox News noted the magazine's long history of
satirizing radical Muslims and drawing anger over the cartoons. The publication's offices were destroyed two years ago in a retaliatory fire.
But the fearless Charbonnier was undaunted, defending the content in an interview with the German publication Der Spiegel, Mediaite noted.
“We publish caricatures every week, but people only describe them as declarations of war when it’s about the person of the Prophet or radical Islam,” Charbonnier said.
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