VSU Hosts Panel Discussion on Charlie Hebdo Attack

VALDOSTA — The French Club at Valdosta State University will host an expert panel discussion on the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 26, in Student Union Ballroom C.

The panel will consist of Dr. Babacar Mdoup, an assistant professor of French in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at VSU and director of the study abroad program in Senegal; Mariya Chakir, a lecturer of Arabic and French in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at VSU; and Thibault Deneve, an international student from Belgium.

Chakir said, “The Charlie Hebdo attack raises difficult questions about free speech, diversity, and extremism in a civil society like France. We, as a VSU organization, want to raise awareness of all these questions and represent different views. We, as teachers, want to help young people talk about free speech and its limits. We want to help young people recognize and challenge dogma, to learn to question and engage multiple points of view without embracing relativism.” 

Charlie Hebdo is a weekly satirical publication in France. On Jan. 7, two armed men forced their way into the newspaper's offices, killed 11 people, and injured 11 more. They then killed a French law enforcement officer outside. The attack has been described as the deadliest act of terrorism in France since the 1961 Vitry-Le-Francois train bombing that resulted in the death of 28 people.

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