The Western intelligentsia’s response to this savagery will likely be to call for voluntary self-censorship so as not to offend Muslims — rather than to call for a robust defense of the freedom of speech and resolute stand against these violent attempts to make the non-Muslim world conform to Sharia blasphemy laws.
“Niger protests over Charlie Hebdo Prophet Mohammed cartoon leaves four dead and 45 injured,” AFP, January 16, 2015 (thanks to Anne Crockett):
Four people were killed and 45 injured in a day of violent protests in Niger’s second city against French magazine Charlie Hebdo’s publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.
Massaoudou Hassoumi, the interior minister, said a policeman and three civilians died in Friday’s disturbances in Zinder in which three churches were ransacked and the French cultural centre was burned down.
Thousands of protesters gathered outside mosques after Friday prayers to vent anger at the depiction of the prophet, which is considered taboo to most Muslims.
Twenty-two members of the security forces and 23 protesters were hurt in the ensuing clashes, national radio reported, as one Catholic and two Protestant churches were attacked.
A doctor in the city’s hospital told AFP that all of the dead and three of the injured had gunshot wounds….