Except that as one political cartoon from the Windsor Star said today, “Unfortunately they are armed with assault rifles these days.” Still, I for one believe that the pen will ultimately prove more powerful. Radical fundamentalism has won a skirmish. And sadly, the events of yesterday will not be the final battle. No doubt more lives will be lost, but freedom of speech will prevail.

As the setbacks and repression that followed the Arab Spring and Tiananmen Square show, the road to democratic freedom is not a straight path, but for most of the world’s oppressed people, democratic principles still set the benchmark. No one opts for the legacies of poverty, violence and slavery if given a choice. Several columnists today have ironically pointed out that the Muslims who emigrated to France actively chose it over their birthplace.

Still the tragic murders that occurred in Paris have challenged one of the fundamental rights that we in the West cherish most. And they did so in a spectacularly iconoclastic way, singling out a political newspaper that held as its raison d’etre the satiric send-up of anything that rings false. Perhaps Charles Hebdo was reckless in its approach to radical Islam. But nothing justifies yesterday’s attack.

With its heritage as the birthplace of modern liberal thinking, much has been made of the fact that France could well become the first European state to be predominantly Muslim. In that sense, more than any other place on earth, it is a crucible for the fight for freedom in the face of radicalized Islam. The home of Charlie Hebdo on Boulevard Richard Lenoir lies not far from the Marais, the old Jewish ghetto and is just steps from La Bastille. Place de la Republique is only moments away.

I for one was particularly heartened by the images of the hundreds Parisians who took to the streets of Paris with signs yesterday to stand in solidarity with Charles Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier who said, “… I’d rather die standing up than live on my knees,…” Sadly, yesterday he did just that.