Read my article The Charlie Hebdo massacre at Da Tech Guy blog.
Without a doubt, this was a well-planned attack, timed to take place with the start of winter sales that typically attract large numbers of tourists.
The perpetrators are still at large.
This attack had absolutely NOTHING to do with winter sales, or tourists. Nada. Rien. And in other languages. It was a coldly calculated well prepared attack on the office of a magazine that Islamic militants not only found obnoxious, but that had been attacked before. To say this was timed to take place at the same time as the sales shows a sadly non-existent understanding of France, its calendar and its celebration of Christmas. Yesterday was Three Kings, the religious festival that in Europe, marks the end of the Christmas/New Year celebrations. Shops are shut over Three Kings- streets are quiet because families are celebrating – as they do at Christmas. As Americans do at Thanksgiving. Today life returns to the streets and the stores. And offices reopen. In the case of Charlie Hebdo – it was death that returned, not life.
DWL,
I agree with you that it was death that returned, not life.
However, one should not overlook the timing. Jan. 7 was the first editorial meeting of CH; it’s also the equivalent of Black Friday (the busiest shopping day of the year), when police resources are engaged elsewhere.
Nonetheless, I see that you may have a “sadly non-existent understanding of” my own knowledge of the Catholic calendar.