Al-Qaeda brags about crossing Charlie Hebdo staffer off their 'Most Wanted' list. Here's who remains.

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Twitter accounts affiliated with al-Qaeda have released a follow-up to their “Wanted: Dead or Alive” poster issued in 2013, drawing a red X over the face of Stephane Charbonnier, one of the editors who was killed in the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris this week.

The list was originally published in Inspire, al-Qaeda’s leading English-speaking magazine. It features other writers, artists, religious figures, and politicians who the terrorist group has singled out. Here’s a look at who they are:

Pastor Terry Jones

A report came out this morning finding that the controversial pastor, who made international headlines when he threatened to burn Qurans, has just opened a french fry stand in a Central Florida mall.

When he finally followed through on his plan to burn Qurans in 2011, the event was blamed for an attack on a United Nations compound in Afghanistan in which at least seven people died.

This week, Jones told the Bradenton Herald that death threats towards him have been on the rise since the reemergence of the poster, but that he has notified the FBI and local police about the threats. He is not going into hiding any time soon, Jones said.

Photo by Getty Images

Kurt Westergaard

The Danish caricaturist can claim his spot on the list for publishing a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban in 2005. He has since been targeted in many attempted assassinations, the last of which was in 2011.

In a phone call with Deutsche Welle after the Paris attack, Westergaard said he hopes the media will not be scared into silence by these attacks.

Lars Vilks

In 2007, Vilks drew an image depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a street dog for an art installation on the theme of the dog in art. The image was condemned by many governments in the Muslim world. Several foiled assassination plots and terrorist attacks have made mention of the cartoon.

“Who dares to publish anything after this?” he asked Russia Today in an interview after the Paris attack.

Flemming Rose and Carsten Juste

Until 2008, Juste was editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, the Dutch magazine that published Westergaard’s Muhammad cartoon. Rose still works at the paper, and he assumed most of the responsibility for its publication at the time.

“We will not apologise, because we live in Denmark under Danish law, and we have freedom of speech in this country. If we apologised, we would betray the generations who have fought for this right, and the moderate Muslims who are democratically minded,” Rose said shortly after the cartoon was published.

Molly Norris

The Seattle cartoonist was one of the main organizers behind the “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” protest in 2010, in response to Comedy Central’s decision to censor scenes in a South Park episode which were depicting the religious leader.

Credible threats have been made on her life, and she has reportedly gone into hiding.

Pakistani Muslims burn the effigy of Molly Norris on May 26, 2010. Photo by Getty Images.

Salman Rushdie

Perhaps the most well-known name on the list, Rushdie’s 1988 book “The Satanic Verses” contained controversial depictions of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. The next year Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeni called for his death.

He condemned the Paris attacks in a statement issued on Wednesday:

Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today. I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity. ‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’ Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.

Geert Wilders

This right-wing Dutch politician has been outspoken against Islam, saying bluntly “I don’t hate Muslims, I hate Islam.” He has advocated banning the Quran in the Netherlands, banning the construction of mosques in the country, and imposing a tax on Muslim women who wear head scarves.

“This is not the end of our miseries, but only the beginning,” he said of the Paris attack in a recorded message.

Morris Sadek

Remember that horrible homemade anti-Islamic video “Innocence of Muslims,” which incited widespread violence in the Muslim world? That was Sadek’s making. In Pakistan alone, at least 15 people were reported dead in the ensuing protests. The video has since been taken down by YouTube, and Sadek’s Egyptian citizenship has been revoked.

Ayyan Hirsi Ali

A Somali- born critic of Islam, Ali has been outspoken against the religion’s views on women, and especially the practice of female genital mutilation. After helping Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh make a short film critical of Islam’s treatment of women in 2004, she was catapulted into the spotlight when van Gogh was brutally murdered shortly after it aired. A five page letter addressed to her was stabbed onto van Gogh’s corpse with a knife. It said that she too would be “executed” for being an apostate.


Daniel Rivero is a producer/reporter for Fusion who focuses on police and justice issues. He also skateboards, does a bunch of arts related things on his off time, and likes Cuban coffee.

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