Anti-Muslim Cartoon Contest: Two Shot Dead

In the ongoing wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre two gunmen, who reportedly opened fire at an exhibition displaying cartoons of Prophet Muhammad were themselves shot dead on Sunday night. Initial reports said the men may have also been carrying explosives. Reports on Sunday night said the men were shot outside an event near Dallas, Texas that had styled itself as an “extreme free speech” exhibition.

During the incident a security guard was reportedly shot and injured. a large number of police officers were on duty at the event, which was probably due to an anticipation of some sort of problem regarding the nature of the event.

“We were prepared for something like this because there additional officers hired by the school district,” Joe Harn, a spokesman for Garland Police Department told a press conference on Sunday evening. “There is a lot of investigating to be done.”

These events come in the wake of the 12 people shot and killed at the French magazine Charlie Hebdo. The attack on the office and staff was prompted by the publication of satirical cartoons that depicted the Prophet Muhammad. The Paris-based publication had previously been targeted, fire bombed and burned to the ground.

The event had been organised by Pamela Geller, head of the American Freedom Defence Initiative (AFDI), the controversial New York-based organisation – which has previously been at the centre controversy in San Francisco after it paid for anti-Muslim advertisements on the city’s buses – had been hosting a contest that intended to award $10,000 for the best cartoon depicting Muhammad.

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