Je Suis Charlie

The Mouse Castle is shocked and saddened at today's horrific terrorist attack on the office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. We offer our deepest condolences to the victims, their friends and families and the good people of France. At the time of this post, 12 people have died and 11 people have been injured it what is being described as the deadliest terror attack in France in over 50 years.

While all the details and motives of this terrible act are not completely clear, it seems painfully obvious that Charlie Hebdo was attacked by religious extremists in retaliation for the magazine's provocative and sometimes incendiary cartoons, many of which took aim at Islam and its teachings. While Charlie Hebdo's brand of vitriol may not be for all tastes, it is nevertheless the product of a culture that like the United States puts a high value on freedom of speech. It's a value that no crazed fanatic should ever be allowed to silence with the muzzle of a rifle.

The attack on Charlie Hebdo is an attack on writers, journalists, cartoonists and bloggers everywhere--any individual who uses the written word to convey an opinion or express a thought. Even a blog that covers as benign a topic as Disney does so because the principles of free speech allow us to do so. We will never take those principles for granted.

Today, we stand with France and against all those who would violently suppress free expression. Je suis Charlie!