That Charlie Hebdo Satirists Should Die for 'Offensive' Speech is an Outrage

At USA Today, "Paris slaughter can't silence free expression: Our view":

Cartoonists are not ordinarily people you'd think of as threatening. Their most dangerous weapon is rapier wit, artistically aimed to provoke thought. But for the thin-skinned, the intolerant and the arrogant, mockery stings more than an acid bath.

So on Wednesday, in an act of primitive brutality, Islamist radicals angered by the work of four cartoonists simply murdered them, along with other journalists and bystanders at the satirical Paris weekly Charlie Hebdo.

The satirists might be unlikely heroes, but they are heroes nevertheless — martyrs to that most fundamental of Western values, the right to free expression, which they chose to exercise despite threats and a firebombing just three years ago that might have muted others.

Their form of speech was not the easiest to defend. Like other satirical publications, Charlie Hebdo aims to be offensive, and it succeeds. The newspaper regularly mocks politicians and religious leaders of all types, including Catholics and Jews. Muslim radicals have been a recurring target.

A decade ago, Charlie republished a collection of Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed that had set off worldwide riots. Muslims sued for blasphemy and lost.

In 2011, a cover renamed the magazine Charia Hebdo, a play on sharia, or Islamic law, and said the issue was edited by Mohammed. The firebombing followed.

Undeterred, Charlie Hebdo set off an uproar again in 2012...

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