[caption id=”attachment_114185″ align=”aligncenter” width=”5100″] FILE – In this Sept.19, 2012 file photo, Stephane Charbonnier also known as Charb , the publishing director of the satyric weekly Charlie Hebdo, displays the front page of the newspaper as he poses for photographers in Paris. Masked gunmen shouting Allahu akbar! stormed the Paris offices of a satirical newspaper Wednesday Jan.7, 2015, killing 12 people including Charb, before escaping. It was France’s deadliest terror attack in at least two decades. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
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A majority of Americans still believe in free speech, but that number declines when put in the context of the terrorist attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
According to a new poll by the Pew Research Center, about 76 percent of Americans have heard about the attacks on the offices of the magazine that were allegedly prompted by its negative depiction of the prophet Muhammad.
Just 60 percent of the respondents that knew about the attack believe it was okay for Charlie Hebdo to have published cartoons portraying Muhammad, and 28 percent said it was not okay.
Of those who agreed with the magazine’s decision, the majority cited freedoms of speech and the press.
But two-thirds of those that disagreed said that it was about “tolerance and respect.”
About 35 percent said that religious beliefs should be respected, and 31 percent said the cartoons were offensive, politically incorrect or inappropriate. Another 7 percent said they were against publication of the cartoons because they provoked violence, threats or anger.
The breakdown of the support for Charlie Hebdo’s decision also seemed to fall along party lines, Pew found.
Support for publishing the cartoons was much higher among Republicans and Republican leaning respondents, with 70 percent of these agreeing,than among Democrats and Democratic leaning respondents.
