Rhian, yes they do. Google them and see for yourself.

Yuyutsu,

I'm sure you're equally sad for the policewoman and the people doing their shopping...who weren't "in the company of mockers"...but nonetheless were killed randomly by these people.

They had absolutely no connection with any perceived "provocation".

Dear Poirot,

Yes of course, but that is not the topic as well as completely uncontroversial. I am equally sad for the passengers and crew of AirAsia flight QZ8501.

Yuyutsu,

I was merely pointing out since so many are citing "provocation" as the reason the attackers committed the Charlie Hebdo massacre - that their confederates targeted people randomly who had nothing to do with cartooning.

Yuyutsu,

It would depend on what is being mocked, wouldn't it?

Question: Do you think that evil, hate and violence deserve to be exempt from mockery?

You know where I am going with this so please think about your position -- and answer my question.

Jay kactuz

The author doesn't appear to give a flying rubber duck about the murder of the cartoonists or free speech. The thrust of the article is to condemn the Left's supposed fanatical need to defend Islam at all costs.

Since the Hebdo shootings, I've read dozens of articles on left-wing alternative media sites (e.g. Media Lens [UK], Global Research [Canada] and The Saker [US]; anti-war/anti-Zionist 'conspiracy' sites like What Really Happened (US); radical 'Socialist Alternative' websites like RedFlag; articles by high-profile left-wing intellectuals like Noamh Chomsky and left-wing journalists like Pepe Escobar, Robert Fisk and Jonathon Cooke; left-wing comedians like Russell Brand; and non-aligned, left-leaning media networks like RT [Russia] and Press TV [Iran]).

NEVER have I seen any attempt in any of those websites or the journalists' writings to resort to condemnations of Islamphobia to justify the Hebdo shootings. The overwhelmingly consistent argument running through all these 'left-wing' writings is the condemnation of Western hypocrisy in taking the high moral ground on freedom of speech, after decades of raining down death, misery and destruction on Islamic countries without any apparent sense of conscience.

I would suggest to author, Tim Napper, that if you see the Left as your enemy, then get to know it better.