Charlie Hebdo one year on

January 7, 2016, Charlie Hebdo front cover

Op-Ed: January 7, 2015, a terror attack at the Charlie Hebdo premises in France was a game changer.

[But some have chosen to mark this one-year anniversary with violence. In Paris police have shot and killed a knife-wielding suspect who allegedly tried to break into a police station and in Egypt gunmen have opened fire on a tourist coach in Cairo.]

The death toll in Paris January 2015 may have been lower than the 9/11 attacks in New York but it was one of those terrible terror attacks that caught the hearts and minds of people across the world.

The Charlie Hebdo publication is known for confronting terror and some matters head on with its controversial front covers.

One-year on the front cover reproduced in this report is the anniversary front page.

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Whether you support Charlie Hebdos view of free speech with no boundaries or not is not the issue. The issue remains the right for people in the western world to go about their daily life without the threat of a terrorist attack.

Since last January we in the west have had to get used to an increased terror threat. On a Tunisian beach in June, 2013, 38 people were mercilessly gunned down as they enjoyed a vacation; 30 of the 38 were British.

It was a lone gunman attack but the perpetrator appeared to have links to a wider terror organisation.

In November 130 people were killed in multiple terror attacks in Paris France; 89 at the Bataclan theatre where fans were watching an American rock band. Shooting was also reported at Le Carillon restaurant which is located in Paris in an area close to the Charlie Hebdo offices; reports of bombs and shooting elsewhere in Paris followed.

California rock band Eagles of Death Metal was playing to a packed house at Le Bataclan concert hall when gunmen stormed in gunning down members of the audience prior to a hostage situation.

In California USA on December 2, 2015, 14 people were killed and 22 were seriously injured in a terrorist attack in San Bernardino; the perpetrators were a man and woman and the attack involved a mass shooting and attempted bombing.

But those attacks are just the tip of the iceberg.

There have been many more attacks not least in Africa and the Middle East where hundreds if not thousands of people have been killed or brutalised by terrorists.

In May 2014 "276 Nigerian girls were still missing after being kidnapped by terrorists."

Today as we remember the 'Charlie Hebdo' victims we should say a prayer for all those who have succumbed to any death cult or terror group that classes life on this planet as worth squandering.

Support for Charlie Hebdo

The Charlie Hebdo attacks as they happened

Breaking news reports said gunmen stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, a French satirical weekly publication, killing 10. Earlier the publications cartoonist Renaud Luzier said: ‘I think there are casualties.’

At time of writing 11 people were confirmed dead and five critically wounded but the death toll quickly rose to 12. Among the dead are the publication's editor, two police officers and renowned cartoonists.

The situation remains fluid and the terrorists, believed to be three, at large after escaping the scene in two vehicles. Police are looking for two brothers in the Paris region and another man in the north-eastern city of Reims. A government source said the two brothers are 32 and 34 years of age and the third suspect is 18 years old.

Masked gunmen with automatic weapons stormed the building shortly after a tweet by staff Wednesday morning. Minutes before the attack Charlie Hebdo had tweeted a satirical cartoon of the leader of the terror organisation Daesh giving his New Year's wishes.

Charlie Hebdo has been threatened in the past following satirical posts including the Prophet.

In 2011 the office were firebombed after a spoof issue featured a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad on its cover. The publication posted more controversial images a year later.

The January 7 terror attack is France's deadliest for two decades.

President Hollande's statement via the Guardian

Francois Hollande spoke to the media; he said that 11 people had been killed and four people seriously injured but 40 people had been rescued.

Hollande said that the security level had been increased in Paris and a number of terrorist plots had been foiled in recent weeks.

An emergency meeting will be held at the Elysees Palace in the next hour.

Hollande said France had experienced “an exceptional act of barbarism committed against a newspaper”.

France was facing a “shock”, he added. “We need to show we are a united country,” he said.

France had to be “firm and strong” adding: “We will fight these threats and we will punish the attackers.”

France had been targeted because it was a country of freedom but no one would be allowed to go against “the spirit of the republic” in this way.

[Charlie Hebdo editor and cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier, known as Charb, was among the 12 people killed in a terror attack Wednesday, January 7, at the magazine's offices in Paris. On January 9, four hostages were killed when a gunman seized a Jewish grocery store and killed them before police moved in.]

Archived related reports from the days following the

British police apologise for taking names of Charlie Hebdo buyers
Charlie Hebdo suspects dead, France battles hostage situations
Netanyahu unwanted French guest seeks political opportunity

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