Whatever goal the terrorists responsible for the Paris attacks set themselves and whichever Islamic group they adhered to, the reaction cannot have been one they expected, nor that they would have sought.
History will recall not the attack, but the response. Up to four million French people of every ethnicity marching for the liberty which they believe to be the foundation of the French nation. Among them forty-seven leaders from countries across the globe. The magazine at the centre of the atrocity appearing for its next issue with another cartoon of the Prophet with a print run, not of its usual sixty thousand, but of three million.
That this is all a game changer is certain. How it will change which game in what way is unclear. Whether freedom of speech and expression includes the freedom to insult and make fun of other people’s religious convictions is not clear either.