Charlie Hebdo Editor Killed In Attack Once Said I’d Rather ‘Die Standing Than Live On My Knees’

FILE - In this Nov.2, 2011 file photo satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo's editor in chief, Charb, answers reporters in front of the headquarters of the newspaper, in Paris. Masked gunmen shouting "Allahu akbar... FILE - In this Nov.2, 2011 file photo satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo's editor in chief, Charb, answers reporters in front of the headquarters of the newspaper, in Paris. Masked gunmen shouting "Allahu akbar!" stormed the Paris offices of a satirical newspaper Wednesday Jan.7, 2015, killing 12 people including the editor and a cartoonist before escaping. It was France's deadliest terror attack in at least two decades.(AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File) MORE LESS
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The editor of the French satirical magazine Stephane Charbonnier, who went by Charb, fought for the freedom of speech despite receiving death threats over the controversial cartoons he published.

Charb, who was killed in the attack on the magazine’s headquarters on Wednesday, told French paper Le Monde in 2012 that he would rather “die standing than live on my knees,” according to the New York Times.

He was under police protection due to the threats he received, largely related to the controversial cartoons about Islam the magazine run.

The magazine’s headquarters were bombed in 2011 after the publication ran a cover featuring a cartoon with the Prophet Muhammad, but Charb said that such attacks would not deter him from printing the magazine.

“I don’t feel as though I’m killing someone with a pen,” he told Le Monde. “I’m not putting lives at risk. When activists need a pretext to justify their violence, they always find it.”

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  1. Avatar for dnl dnl says:

    I am so sorry that Charb , and his colleagues, had to die in an effort to protect freedom of speech.

    So many weapons.
    Such limited intelligence.

  2. Nothing on the Onion site yet.

  3. “He was under police protection due to the threats he received, largely related to the controversial cartoons about Islam the magazine run.”

    Uh, “was” as in prior to his death or “was” as in 2011 when the offices were bombed?

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