Nations must unite to prove pen is mightier than AK-47

What do Marie Antoinette, Charles de Gaulle, Charlie Brown and Charlie Hebdo have in common?

Each is a thread in the raw fabric under- lying Wednesday’s abominable terrorist attack on a satirical French newspaper’s offices that ended with at least 12 dead, including several acclaimed journalists. In a broader sense, each also represents small links in the chain of freedom of speech that stretches back more than two centuries in France, a republic founded on the American-inspired principles of liberty, equality and fraternity.

In effect, the killers using Russian-styled AK-47s attacked a tradition of sharp, abrasive and satiric commentary by the French press dating back to its 18th-century derisive analogies of Marie Antoinette to the derogatory term for a female dog and continuing to the sharp criticism of France’s legendary President Charles de Gaulle during the social upheavals that rocked the nation in the late 1960s. The ultra-leftist Charlie Hebdo, in fact, owes its name to the not-so-subtle comparison of Charles DeGaulle to Charlie Brown, the dim-witted loser of “Peanuts” comic-strip fame.

And although many may not subscribe to the same genre of biting opinion writing and outrageous and sometimes sacriligious cartoons found in Charlie Hebdo, most all freedom- loving peoples can defend its right to publish such content. After all, they are the staples of satire, a literary art form. And last time we checked, satire had not received a waiver from the freedom-of-the-press guarantees treasured by France and the United States alike.

As such, in the aftermath of the largest terror attack in France since 1961, the U.S. must stand firm with its longstanding ally to bring the culprits to justice and to ensure that the pen remains mightier than the assault rifle.

TERRORISTS CAN’T KILL CHARLIE

The suspects have been identified as Islamic extremists with ties to al-Qaida angered at Charlie’s off-color depictions of their prophet, Mohammad. French television showed footage of two men leaving Charlie Hebdo’s offices shouting in French: “We have avenged Prophet Muhammad. We have killed Charlie Hebdo.”

No, they have not killed Charlie Hebdo, as one of its surviving staff members boldly pronounced Thursday. The weekly newspaper will publish as scheduled next Wednesday to defiantly show that “stupidity will not win,” CH columnist Patrick Pelloux said.

That same spirt of fortitude must be shared by political leaders around the world and by all fair-minded and justice-loving Muslims and people of all faiths worldwide.

After all, Charlie’s poisonous pen did not unleash its cynicism only toward Muslims. As a largely atheistic publication, all religions were its bull’s-eyes. The shock value remains one of the foundations of satire, and as such must be protected.

For his part, President Barack Obama has pledged to stand shoulder to shoulder with France to help “hunt down and bring the perpetrators of this specific act to justice, and to roll up the networks that help to advance these kinds of plots.”

French President Francois Hollande called on peoples of his nation and the world to unite in the fight against this grisly attack in particular and against all extremist terror in general. “Unity is our best weapon,” he told his countrymen in a nationally televised address after the attack.

Freedom-loving nations of the world must join in condemning the attack, rounding up and punishing those responsible and working to double up security to lessen chances of copycat attacks on fundamental freedoms now and in the future. Such would be a fitting tribute to the valiant journalists so savagely killed in their mission to preserve and protect the honor of Charlie.