In response to the massacre of the staff of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the French-language Canadian newspaper Le Journal Montréal included a connect-the-dot picture of "Mohammed" in today's issue so that its readers can "draw" their very own Mohammed cartoon.
"Mohammad cartoons in the next Charlie Hebdo." "Print out the sheet and connect the dots. Will join your pencil with theirs."
Last week, a hashtag praising the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo attack was actually a trending topic for a bit in Montreal. The city is home to the second-largest Jewish population in Canada. This past weekend, the Montreal Canadiens played La Marseillaise and projected the French flag onto the ice prior to their game in honor of the victims of the atrocities throughout Paris.
This was a ballsy move by the paper, and I kinda like it. The paper can't be accused of publishing an actual cartoon of Mohammed (as it's not a finished—it's just a face with eyebrows), and those who want to finish the cartoon are able to choose to do so.
Nobody should be murdered over a cartoon, and it makes me sad that we live in a world where publishing this connect-the-dot picture is considered an act of bravery or an incredibly risky move.
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