Political issues in the arson attack on France’s Charlie Hebdo magazine

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Thursday November 17, 2011 13:34 by Joe Mc

French media and politicians have blamed Islamists for an arson attack on the offices of the satirical cartoon weekly Charlie Hebdo on November 2. The magazine has over the years published many anti Muslim cartoons and was a supporter of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005 when the latter published its infamous Islamophobic cartoon provocation . After the attack ,SOS-Racism, a group with ties to the Socialist Party (PS) and the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA), organized a demonstration in support of Charlie Hebdo.

Alex Lantier argues in the WSWS this morning that "more questions than answers remain about the crime, and the identity and motives of its perpetrators. " http://www.wsws.org/index.shtml