Days after the terrorist attack on the French satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, that killed 12, including the paper’s editor and cartoonist, French media headlines asked, “Freedom Assassinated?”
That indeed is the question, said Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES) President Dr. Richard Land in a recent installment of his daily radio feature, “Bringing Every Thought Captive.”
“Will we in the West allow these radical Islamic terrorists to intimidate and bully us into not exercising our freedoms of speech and expression?” Land asked. “Personally, I don’t think we should be mocking or ridiculing people’s religious beliefs. I know how offended I am as a Christian when Jesus is mocked or ridiculed. As a Christian, I should seek to do unto others as I would have them do unto me.
“However,” he continued, “when people are gunned down for exercising their rights, then we must all condemn such barbaric actions. As has often been said, ‘I disagree with everything you say and I defend to the death your right to say it.'”
According to a Reuters story, two brothers were allegedly directed to launch the attack by a branch of Al Qaeda in Yemen. The brothers were killed Friday when police stormed their hideout at a print shop northeast of Paris, where one hostage was being held. That hostage escaped safely, but four other hostages, along with another gunman, died in a separate standoff at a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris.
“In response to the Islamic fascist jihadis and their attack in Paris, I believe every major American news outlet—electronic and print—should reproduce the offensive and provocative cartoons and caricatures,” Land continued. “Why? That would send an unmistakable message to the jihadi storm troopers: ‘We will not be intimidated.’ Even if we find the material offensive personally, when you murder people for producing such material, we’re going to stand in solidarity with your victims and for freedom of speech. As our revolutionary ancestors declared long ago, ‘We will live free or die.'”
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