Arson Attack Takes Place In Germany, Hamburger Morgenpost Firebombed After Reprinting Charlie Hebdo Cartoons [PHOTO]

This past Sunday, a German newspaper that reprinted cartoons from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was firebombed. According to Yahoo News, the newspaper - known as Hamburger Morgenpost (MOPO) - reprinted the cartoons in order to pay tribute to those killed in this past Wednesday's shooting in Paris.

The arson attack took place overnight, and Breitbart reports that a Molotov cocktail and several rocks were found in the newspaper's archive in the basement of the building. Several files in the archive were destroyed, but no one was injured. Two suspects have currently been detained.

As of now, it is too soon to tell whether the firebombing is connected to the Charlie Hebdo tribute. If it were, it would qualify as the first attack against the cartoons since Wednesday's massacre of 12 people at the French weekly.

The Hamburger Morgenpost itself has been reporting regular updates on the firebombing. It initially made the statement, "Thick smoke is still hanging in the air, the police are looking for clues," under the headline, "Arson attack on the MOPO - Due to the 'Charlie Hebdo' cartoons?"

 Yahoo News reports that it later removed any reference to Charlie Hebdo, but quoted the regional representative body for the media as calling the attack a "cowardly and insidious act of terror against press freedom."

According to Peninsula On-line, MOPO editor-in-chief Frank Niggemeier said in a statement that his team was "shocked that something like this could happen in a cosmopolitan and liberal city like Hamburg."

However, things are beginning to stir in Germany - specifically an anti-Islamic movement known as PEGIDA. The acronym stands for "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident," a right-wing populist group that has called for its upcoming Monday march to be dedicated to "the victims of terrorism in Paris."

Several Muslim groups have also called a silent march in Berlin on Monday to denounce violence and call for social cohesion.

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Hamburger Morgenpost
MOPO
Charlie Hebdo
Arson
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