JeSuisCharlie

"Allah akbar!" — or "God is great" in Arabic — was the cry from two gunmen armed with Kalashnikov rifles who stormed the offices of French magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday, opening fire and killing 12 journalists and wounding others.

It’s widely suspected that French nationals and brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi were acting to “avenge the prophet Muhammad” after his image was depicted in satirical cartoons published in the left-leaning magazine. Subsequent attacks in France by co-conspirators of the the two gunmen left five more people dead. The incident has been described as the worst terrorist attack on French soil in 50 years.

The Charlie Hebdo massacre likely won’t be the last one carried out in the name of faith. The attack has left deep scars in many communities—religious, cultural, and political—and Patheos bloggers united to express their thoughts on the tragedy’s implications for freedom of speech, Islam, and religious fundamentalism.