CFI Canada echoes the words of Stephan Oberreit, Director of Amnesty International France, in the wake of the death of 12 people at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo:
This is a dark day for freedom of expression and a vibrant press culture. But above all, it is an appalling human tragedy.
CFI Canada condemns the two gunmen and their motivation for killing at least 12 people and wounding at least 10 others at the Paris office of the newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Eric Adriaans, National Executive Director of CFI Canada said,”It is difficult to put into words how deeply the attack at Charlie Hebdo affects secular humanists and atheists – how heartbreaking and grievous these murders are for us, but at the same time how much reinforcement it demands of our conviction to oppose religious extremists. When people of faith attempt to intimidate, silence, harm, torture, persecute and murder others, we must respond with condemnation and solidarity. We must oppose all acts and forms of faith-based oppression and violence.”
CFI Canada joins with CFI Transnational and all organizations that stand in solidarity with the people of Charlie Hebdo in support of their right to free speech.
We are
heartbroken by the unthinkable and cowardly attack at the magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris today, and outraged that such a barbaric act was a response to journalists and satirists exercising their right to free expression.
CFI Canada pledges to continue its mission “to provide education and training to the public in the application of skeptical, secular, rational and humanistic inquiry.”
Update # 1 – January 7, 2015
For those interested to recall the Free Inqury article (Volume 26, Issue 3) from April? May 2006 which detailed Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten depiction of Muhammad, here is a link.
We recommend reading the Canadian Atheist post by Diana MacPherson.
Update # 2 – January 7, 2015
Charlie Hebdo has provided a PDF document of Je Suis Charlie on their website; CFIC is investigating our ability to produce Je Suis Charlie buttons at our office for distribution; if you’d like a Je Suis Charlie button to display your solidarity, grief and outrage…please send an email to ned@cficanada.ca
Update # 3 – January 8, 2015
CFI Canada issued a call to the Canadian government to protect the freedom of speech by disposing of Criminal Code Section 296: Canada’s Anti-Blasphemy law.
To follow the coverage and debate here are a few links:
http://www.mysecretatheistblog.com/
Follow Media Coverage of this Issue
1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/07/richard-dawkins-religion-charlie-hebdo_n_6430724.html
2. http://www.nltimes.nl/2015/01/08/muslims-dont-like-free-speech-can-fuck-off-
3. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4317085.ece
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