The others on Al Qaeda's list along with Charlie Hebdo editor Stéphane Charbonnier
The News Minute | January 8, 2015 | 05:49 pm IST
Charlie Hebdo editor Stéphane Charbonnier's name was one among the 11 names that reportedly featured on a hit list in the May 2013 issue of Al Qaeda's English-language magazine Inspire.
The issue put out a list of 11 names, along with photographs, reading "Wanted: Dead or Alive". See the list published in Inspire here (Some names have been misspelled in Inspire's list)
The caption along with the list read,
'Yes We Can.
A Bullet a Day Keeps the Infidel Away
Defend Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him'.
Stéphane Charbonnier, along with 11 other people, was killed on Wednesday when three masked gunmen attacked his office. Ever since, the list has once again surfaced in media reports. It, however, may be too early to speculate that the list had anything to do with Wednesday's attack on Charlie Hebdo.
Here is a brief description of the other names that were mentioned in the Inspire list.
(Ayaan Hirsi Ali)
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born American activist, writer and politician. She is the founder of AHA foundation for women. She collaborated on a short movie with Theo van Gogh, entitled Submission (2004), which was in criticism of Islam. It provoked a controversy, and both of them had to face death threats from Islamic extremist. Van Gogh was assassinated later that year by a Dutch Muslim. Ali is an atheist and has written several noted criticisms about the evil practices in Islam.
Kurt Westergaard is a Danish caricaturist. He had come under attack from Islamists for creating a very controversial cartoon- he had made a caricature of Prophet Mohamed with a bomb hidden in his turban. He reportedly has received numerous death threats and even dodged a few assassination attempts. In 2010, over four years after his ‘notorious’ cartoon was published, a 27-year-old Somalian man armed with a knife and axe tried to break in to his house one night. Westergaard’s grandchild was also present in the house at that time. The intruder was later shot and wounded by the police.
(Molly Norris)
Molly Norris is a social satirist and U.S Cartoonist who worked for the Seattle Weekly. In 2010, Norris drew a cartoon in which she satirically represented Prophet Mohammed as various everyday objects, including a teacup, domino, and spool of thread. The cartoon urged the public to participate in a fictional "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day", which stirred up a religious storm and she had to go into hiding following death threats from Al Qaeda.
(Lars Vilks)
Lars Vilks is a Swedish artist. In 2007, he made a cartoon with a head of Prophet Mohammed with a body of a dog. Several art galleries later declined to carry his drawings, citing security reasons. In 2009, he survived a failed assassination attempt. He has since received numerous death threats, was assaulted during a lecture in 2010, and the Al Qaeda in Iraq had reportedly also announced a $150,000 reward for Vilks’ assassination.
(Carsten Juste; Image Source: Berlingske Business Media, Photographer: Eskestad Mik)
Carsten Juste is a Danish journalist and former editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, a top-selling daily in Denmark.
In 2005, his newspaper published a series of cartoons, considered blasphemous by many, of Prophet Mohammad by cartoonist. He had to apologise after international furore. The Guardian quotes Jutse as saying, "The 12 cartoons ... were not intended to be offensive, nor were they at variance with Danish law, but they have indisputably offended many Muslims, for which we apologise”.
(Flemming Rose)
Flemming Rose is a Danish journalist, author and cultural editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. In 2005, he along with Carsten Juste was the editor of the paper when cartoons of Prophet Muhammad cartoons were published in their paper thus inviting a huge controversy. The cartoons were drawn by different Danish illustrators portraying Prophet Mohammed.
(Geert Wilders)
Geert Wilders is the leader of the right-wing Dutch Party for Freedom. He is known for his criticism of Islam. In a 2008 report, The Guardian quoted Wilders as saying, 'Islam is not a religion, it's an ideology, 'the ideology of a retarded culture’. 'I don't create hate. I want to be honest. I don't hate people. I don't hate Muslims. I hate their book and their ideology”, he asserted. He also compared Hitler’s Mein Kampf to the Koran.
(Morris Sadek)
Morris Sadek, an Egyptian Christian activist and lawyer based out of Virginia, is best known for promoting the anti-Mohammad film The Innocence of Muslim. He is also a vocal opponent of Islam.
(Stéphane Charbonnier)
Stéphane Charbonnier was the editor of Charlie Hebdo. Charbonnier, also known as Charb, was a cartoonist who had worked with the French satirical magazine for over two decades. In 2011, he oversaw the publication of a spoof issue “guest edited” by the Prophet Muhammad. The issue went on to draw the ire of many a critics and the office of Charlie Hebdo was damaged in a firebomb attack, a The New York Times report States.
In 2012, he went against the advice of the French government and published cartoons in which the Prophet Mohammed was ‘shown naked and in sexual poses’. Though Charbonnier was under police protection, he had once told the French daily Le Monde ‘that as a single man he did not fear retaliation, and that however pompous it might sound, he would rather “die standing than live on my knees”’, adds NYT.
(Salman Rushdie)
Salman Rushdie is a British Indian novelist and essayist. He was threatened by Islamic fundamentalists for his book The Satanic Verses and had to spend years in hiding.
(Terry Jones)
Terry Jones is a Florida-based preacher. He gained international attention in 2010 for attempting to publicly burn the Koran on that year’s anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. He later cancelled the event.
Jones is the author of "Islam Is of the Devil." An ABC report states ‘Jones believes Islam promotes violence and that Muslims want to impose sharia law in the United States.’