Jihadists play for keeps

A satire-oriented newspaper in Paris found out the hard way:

Gunmen attacked the Paris offices of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper — the same publication that was firebombed years ago after printing a cartoon that poked fun at the Muslim prophet, Mohammed.

Benoit Bringer, a witness to Wednesday’s attack, told a media outlet in France: “Two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs. A few minutes later, we heard lots of shots.”

National Review Online, meanwhile, reported tweets from witnesses, with one writing: “Several men in black cajoles were heard to shout ‘the Prophet has been avenged.’ “

The newspaper offices were firebombed in 2011 after publishing a satirical cartoon about Islam — and have not let up on their coverage of the faith.

As NRO reported: “Just this morning, it tweeted out the following cartoon, with Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi wishing his audience the best for the new year.”

NRO then posted the screenshot of Charlie Hebdo’s black-and-white drawing of the religious leader standing at a microphone and issuing a brief statement.

12 dead.

Be prepared to encounter this kind of reaction:

Howard Dean—that celebrated scholar of Islam—has weighed in on today's murderous rampage in Paris and declared that he refuses to call the shooters in this and similar cases "Muslim terrorists." According to Dean, the disregard for the lives of others that these terrorists display "is not what the Koran says."  Dean's denial of the obvious puts him in the company of many liberals, most notably including President Obama, who after the beheading of James Foley declared that ISIS "speaks for no religion."  

And thus does Western civilization further crumble.