“We were in class when all the bells rang the alarms. At that time I was studying a master’s degree in Paris. I think that if you had to experience it here, there is no one who does not remember what they were doing that day, at that time,” says Alba, a young Spanish woman who was in Paris when the satirical weekly ‘Charlie Hebdo’ was attacked by several jihadists.
It was 11 in the morning, the brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi only needed two minutes to enter the magazine’s editorial office and murder by shooting, shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is the greatest), to nine members of the editorial staff, a counselor and two security people, turning January 7, 2015 into one of the days darker of the history of France, causing a before and after in the country, but also in the media. Since then, newsrooms have increased security measures in their facilities and some avoid entering controversial topics related to religion.
However, 10 years after the attack, ‘Charlie Hebdo’ is still working from an unknown placedespite the constant threats. “They didn’t manage to kill ‘Charlie Hebdo,'” says the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Gerard Biard, in an interview with AFP, although he admits that it is not easy to keep the current team around. fear and security measures that their workers must follow.
Muhammad’s caricatures
The magazine ‘Charlie Hebdo’ was born in 1970, with the aim of follow the trail of its predecessor ‘Hara-Kiri’, a forbidden satirical by the authorities for his provocative tone. However, ‘Charlie Hebdo’ continued the legacy of ‘Hara-Kiri’ by publishing controversial cartoons on religiony policyexploring the limits of French laws that prohibit hate speechbut they allow blasphemy. The criticism of religion, allowed in France, led him to receive countless threats and warnings from the authorities.
Although it was not until the publication of several images of the Prophet Muhammadthe most important figure in Islam, when the intimidation escalated and the publication began to be in the crosshairs of the more radicalized.
On January 7, 2015, Saïd and Chérif Kouach, two brothers born in France of Algerian parents, decided to attack the offices of the weekly. They were both raised in foster homes of Paris after the death of his parents. They studied at the university, one of them obtaining a diploma. electrical engineerand they dedicated their free time to music, recording rap songs, and then uploading them to the Internet. It was precisely on the internet where they were captured and radicalized by a group of Salafists.
Although they had been investigated by the police in 2000 for their links with Smaïn Aït Ali Belkacem, another jihadist, they did not arouse major suspicions among the authorities. Not even Saïd’s trip to Yemen to carry out training under the orders of jihad.
After the attack, the two French brothers managed to flee, and although their objective was to reach Belgiumthe police managed to kill them days later in a printing press in Dammartin-en-Goëlein Seine-et-Marne.
Neutralized by the intervention group of the National Gendarmerie, France thought that January 7 would be remembered as one of the worst days for the country, but it never imagined that this terror would be repeated. On November 13 That same year, an organized group of jihadists carried out three simultaneous attacks in Paris: in the concert hall Bataclanat the Stade de France, and in several restaurants in the capital. This time, 130 people died.
These attacks sowed panic in France, forcing the Government to decree the state of emergency for two years. Until today the country has not abandoned the maximum alert plan terrorist known as ‘Vigipirate’.
10 years after the attacks
The jihadist attack on the editorial office of ‘Charlie Hebdo’ began a wave of solidarity under the motto of “Je suis Charlie”. Since then, the magazine is known worldwide and continues to work as it did on the first day with a clear objective: “It’s not about publishing anything, but rather what makes reflectwhich leads to questioning the dominant ideas and prevent society from being trapped in closed ideologies“explained its director, Laurent ‘Riss’ Sourisseau, in a recent interview with ‘Le Monde’.
In these 10 years, the maximum terrorist alert level has not prevented France from being the target of more attacks: In July 2016, a truck destroyed a crowd that was celebrating on the promenade of A string on National Day, in 2018 a young man shot and killed several people in a christmas market in Strasbourganother radicalized young man beheaded the professor Samuel Patty in 2020 and that same year, the former offices of ‘Charlie Hedbo’ were attacked again, leaving four people serious injuries.
These years have not prevented polarization of the opinions on the freedom of expression and freedom of the pressnor have they managed to create a society more committed to the fight against hate speech, knowing its final result. The attacks opened a great debate about the secularism, becoming almost an obsession for the French Government. The radicalization of young French people through social networks has caused the Government to implement strict measuresboth in the use of the internet, on the street, and in schools: the ban on the use of the hijab or clothing like abaya and the qamisor increasing network security.
During these years, ‘Charlie Hebdo’ has shown that it is more than a satirical publication, an example of this is the division it causes on the left itself. For the communist party, the magazine is the reflection of French freedom of expression, however, for the rebellious Jean-Luc Melénchon The editorial evolution of recent years moves away from the original principles of the weekly approaching the far-right speecheshe has expressed on several occasions. However, figures such as environmentalist Sandrine Rousseau have shown a more conciliatory stance: “I don’t like the publication, but I will always defend the right to satire and the freedom of the press“.
Celeste, a 25-year-old student in Paris, was just a teenager when these attacks happened, but she is clear that “the French no longer walk down the street in the same way”; In his case, when entering a nightclub he checks “where the emergency exits“.
What used to go unnoticed now upsets anyone. A loud noise or a shout from the street is enough to make you turn around, quickly move away, or cast a worried look. The memory of what happened in those two minutes on January 7, 2015 is still very present, perhaps that is why ‘Charlie Hebdo’ will launch a special issue this Tuesday with the “I wish that the desire to laugh never disappears.”
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