Fanatics fear cartoonists: We must NEVER be silenced. Mac of the Mail reveals his stance on Paris massacre and says everyone must stand together to defend freedom of speech

By Mac for the Daily Mail

Published: 19:55 EST, 8 January 2015 | Updated: 00:22 EST, 9 January 2015

Terrorists are terrified of cartoonists. We have the power to make people laugh at them — we prick their lies and pretensions, and reveal how obscene and ridiculous they are. Of course they hate us.

In the wake of the appalling massacre in Paris, some wonderful cartoons have been flying around the world.

One pithy visual image can sum up emotions that could never be expressed in words.

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One of my first thoughts when I heard the news was to draw a cartoon of Al Qaeda gunmen kneeling down to pray . . . but instead of facing Mecca, they are praying to Satan.

I’ve been racking my brains, and I hope that today’s cartoon sums up what we’re all feeling.

We’ve been here before, of course. I was immediately reminded of the days when the IRA was unleashing terror in Britain. Those murderers hated cartoons, too.

I did one about the hunger striker Bobby Sands, an IRA man who was refusing to eat in prison. I drew all the priests and politicians around his bed, begging him not to starve himself to death — and on the other side of the picture, I had a squaddie with an arm and a leg missing.

Dutch cartoonist Ruben Oppenheimer alluded to the 9/11 terror attacks in New York with his thoughtful cartoon which received over 20,000 retweets

The soldier was saying: ‘Nobody seems to worry about the weight I’ve lost.’

From then on I got lots of threats, purporting to be from the IRA, with phone calls saying I was on a death list and warning me to stop laughing at the Republicans.

Some of these threats felt pretty serious — a friend of mine on another paper was sent a parcel full of little bits of metal.

When he undid it, there was a stark note from the IRA inside: ‘Next time it’ll be a real bomb.’ I didn’t know the guys in Paris personally, but I doubt they believed that Muslim extremists would respond with such violence.

We’ve got the difficult task of pulling these people into the 21st century, when they’re trying to drag us back to the 12th.

Of course, it was not only Islam that Charlie Hebdo was mocking. It routinely targets Christians, Catholic priests, the Pope . . . everybody was fair game. That’s how it should be.

There’s no censorship at the Mail — I can say what I like, whether I’m inspired by a sense of real anger one day or making a light-hearted joke the next. I don’t censor my thoughts or worry about threats. As far as my own skin is concerned, I am perfectly happy to tackle any subject.

Sometimes a sense of humour can be a dangerous thing. You’re always going to offend someone. I did one cartoon about a mix-up in a sperm bank, where a new mum ended up having a monkey for a baby.

Of course, this wasn’t meant to be racist in any way, but the response to it was preposterous. An awful lot of people claimed that I was implying the baby was black. Obviously I wasn’t — it was a monkey! At first, I couldn’t quite believe their attitudes, but gradually I realised that some people are deliberately looking to be hurt. They seek out insults that are not there.

Some things are beyond the bounds of decency for a cartoonist: I wouldn’t dream of doing anything about paedophiles in a humorous style, for instance. I don’t set out to laugh at people’s beliefs. I will mock the Church and vicars, but that doesn’t mean I’m knocking people who are devout Christians — I’m laughing at the abuse of religion, not the faith itself.

There’s a grand tradition of that, of course: look back to the geniuses of the 18th and 19th centuries, such as George Cruikshank, James Gillray and William Hogarth. They were completely outrageous, and very funny.

I’ve never wanted to depict the Prophet myself, but I can see exactly why Charlie Hebdo wanted to publish those cartoons of Mohammed, just to show these terrorists that we won’t be intimidated.

Everyone must stand together to defend freedom of speech.

Many of the cartoons included pens or pencils to represent the victims: This one, originally thought to be by Graffiti artist Banksy, was liked more than 82,000 times on Instagram. It appears to be the work of illustrator Lucille Clerc

Cartoonists across the world, including Australian David Pope, have flooded the internet with touching drawings to show support and solidarity for the victims of the Charlie Hebdo terrorism attack

'And this is our gun!' Chilean caricaturist Francisco J Olea thought up this clever image after the event, with the hashtag #CharlieHebdo

Peanuts cartoon, by Magnus Shaw, was posted on Twitter with the caption 'A terrible day for all cartoonists #JeSuisCharlie'

Revenge of the pens - U.S. artist Rob Tornoe depicted sharpened pencils and pens claiming retribution against their attackers in his cartoon

Female cartoonist Signe Wilkinson, best known for her work at the Philadelphia Daily News, asks 'Who has damaged Muhammad more?'