Marie DeffayetLeaksmy Reth

The attacks in Paris killed 17 people, including four cartoonists who worked at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, four people who were at the Jewish supermarket and also three policemen. By attacking journalists and policemen, the terrorists were targetting representatives of two fundamental rights: the right to information and the right to the security of citizens.

World leaders, journalists and celebrities have all shown their support, outraged by the tragic events. Many countries around the world like the Palestinian Authority, South Africa, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the United States of America and many others have shown their solidarity with France. They have supported the efforts by the French to safeguard the security of their country, they have offered their deep condolences to the bereaved families and the French people and they have been standing with the people and the government of France during this difficult time.

People around the world paid tribute to the victims of Wednesday's and Friday's attacks. They deposited candles, crayons and flowers in memory of the deceased.

They were thousands in the streets carrying signs saying « I’m Charlie ». They organized a march of solidarity on Sunday the 11 th of March, to which over 2 million people participated all across France to show they did not want to lose their liberty and they would continue to defend their country and their rights. George Reece, JB Bullet, Tryo or even Grand Corps Malade have created hits.

The world was in mourning not only because of all these people who had been cowardly killed by the terrorists, but because of the consequences that this terrorist attack had caused worldwide. Freedom of expression has been soiled by those who wanted to show their disagreement by using violence to try to silence people who were only sharing their opinions and their ideas.

A lot of people reacted to these outrageous acts on social networks. On Twitter, the hashtag # Respect for Muslims had also been trending worldwide asking for more tolerance because a lot of Muslims felt insulted. They didn't want people to misunderstand and they didn't want to be seen as responsible for these acts of terror. Stereotypes and confusion are the worst things that could happen. Just because one person is bad doesn't mean all those who practice the same religion are also bad.

We must fight against any cowardly act of terrorism. The terrorists wanted to weaken France but they have only strengthened its people and their solidarity. We must support freedom of expression, it has become a new weapon in this war against terrorism. In fact, all these acts of solidarity and sympathy have shown that freedom of speech and expression will not be destroyed by acts of terrorism but that humanity will defend them and come out strengthened. But it’s hard to believe that people are dead by the hand of their fellow humans just because they drew on a piece of paper.