Criticism of religion

A poll of British Muslims published on Wednesday found that 27 percent had some sympathy for the motives behind last month's Islamist attack in Paris against the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
     
Sixty-two percent said they had no sympathy.
      

More than a month after jihadist gunmen massacred much of the Charlie Hebdo editorial team, those who survived are slowly trying to return to a semblance of normality.
      
Twelve people were killed in the January 7 attack on the satirical weekly, including five of France's most beloved cartoonists.
      

A gunman killed at least one person and wounded three police officers after opening fire Feb. 14 on a cultural center in Copenhagen as it was hosting a debate on Islam and free speech.

A 40-year-old man was killed in Copenhagen Saturday when  a cafe, the site of a freedom of speech event, came under fire, Danish police said.

The event was organized by Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who had been threatened several times for drawing caricatures of Prophet Muhammad eight years ago.

The unknown assailants have managed to flee in a car after the shooting.

On Jan. 10, three American college students were murdered at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Unmistakably, they were all Muslims: Deah Shaddy Barakat (23), Yusor Mohammad (21) and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha (19). And again unmistakably, their murderer, a 46-year-old man named Craig Stephen Hicks was a self-declared ?anti-theist? who wanted to see ?religion go away.?

My phone rang last week late in an afternoon. A very polite female reporter, with an accented Turkish which revealed she has been living abroad for many years, asked for a television interview. The theme was ?To listen to a Muslim female humorist how it is to make humor in a Muslim country.? I don?t think I need to say that this was part of the file prepared upon the attack on Charlie Hebdo.

Cumhuriyet said in a statement on Feb. 9 that Can Dündar has now become its new editor-in-chief, with Tahir Özyurtseven as his deputy. 

On Jan. 15, Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu strongly criticized Cumhuriyet for reprinting a Charlie Hebdo cartoon featuring the Prophet Muhammad, saying freedom of expression ?does not grant anybody the right to insult another?s beliefs.?

Defence witness Vojin Ubiparip told the Ratko Mladic trial that Mladic always respected the Geneva Convention and Muslims leftSerb-held territory on the orders of the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, not because Serbian forces persecuted them into leaving.

?We have been following with great concern what is happening at the Fatih Mosque in Istanbul,? a Western diplomat told me, in reference to demonstrations of support of the Kouachi brothers who attacked the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last month.

France: Child questioned by police for "supporting terror"

PARIS -- An eight-year-old boy in France was questioned by police on Wednesday after he allegedly made comments in praise of terrorists, police said.