Terror in Paris: what the attacks tell us about free speech, Islamic extremism, assimilation, and continuing threats against the U.S.

• Author: Majerol, Veronica
• Position: INTERNATIONAL - Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, France

On the morning of January 7, two masked gunmen wearing bulletproof vests stormed the headquarters of the satirical French weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo. They killed 12 people there--most of them writers and cartoonists--and injured 11 others. Two days later, another gunman took over a kosher supermarket, killing four Jewish hostages. French authorities cornered and killed the three attackers, who may have been connected with ISIS (the Islamist militant group that has seized large portions of Iraq and Syria) or a branch of Al Qaeda (the Islamist terrorist group that planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.). They were all young Muslims with African roots: Two were brothers, French citizens whose parents had emigrated from Algeria; the third was an immigrant from Mali who had also become a French citizen.

The Charlie Hebdo killings were carried out by extremists who were angry over the publication's caricatures, some of them pornographic, of the prophet Muhammad. (Charlie Hebdo is also known for lampooning the Pope, politicians, and pop culture figures, and it has been accused of running anti-Semitic content.)

The attacks have raised questions about free speech, Islamic extremism, the assimilation of minorities in Europe, and what it all might mean for the U.S. Here's what you need to know.

1. What do the Charlie Hebdo attacks say about freedom of speech?

   Usually when you hear about censorship, it's about a government cracking down on the free speech of its citizens. But in the case of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, it was terrorists trying to stop the newspaper from publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Despite a long history of threats and previous attacks on its offices, Charlie Hebdo didn't back down. Doing otherwise, the editors believed, would be an affront to freedom of speech everywhere and a victory for terrorism.

   World leaders, including President Obama, echoed that sentiment after the attacks. "The fact that this was an attack on journalists, [an] attack on our free press, also underscores the degree to which these terrorists fear freedom of speech and freedom of the press," Obama said.

   Both France and the U.S. have long traditions of protecting free speech, especially political speech and satire. But both countries also have restrictions on what you can say. Inciting someone to violence, for example, or defaming a person's character aren't protected categories of speech in either France or the U.S. Though most offensive speech is permitted in the U.S. under the First Amendment, France has laws against racially or ethnically charged speech or denying that the Holocaust happened.

   A new French law adopted in November also made it a crime to...