The hashtag #JeSuisCharlie, or "I am Charlie", spread around the world hours after the horrific attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. It's a message of solidarity, an attempt by people from different countries, ethnicities and religions to show their united stand against violence and extremism.
We stand in solidarity with that message.
The short phrase, which rose to the top of trends on social media, is packed with other meanings: It offers condolences to the victims of the shootings, and it defends what the fallen journalists cherished — that is, freedom of expression down to its subtlest form of the right to offend.
It's true there are limits as to how far one can go to insult another person or another person's beliefs. Those limits are enshrined in the law — in defamation and in cease and desist requests. Those limits cannot be enforced by a campaign of terror and killing.
The massacre of 12 people, including the magazine's editor and principal cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier, in its Paris office on Wednesday by masked gunmen shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) is a horrendous crime.
The violence has shocked people not only in Europe but the entire world.
The brazen assault in daylight and the brutality displayed by the attackers suspected of being Islamist extremists during the shootings described as "methodical" and "military-style" make it even more deplorable.
In the plainest terms, stripped of all philosophical debates, this is an act of murdering people for some cartoons, for some ideas that did not go down well with a certain group of people.
Such barbarism stands in direct opposition to what the world needs, which is pluralism and tolerance.
Charlie Hebdo may be considered provocative, even rude or racist by some communities, but its editorial staff do not deserve to be murdered in cold blood.
Such an appalling use of violence must be stopped, no matter for what cause. The attackers, two of whom are reportedly still on a run, must be brought to justice.
It is inevitable, though, that the magazine's tendency to push the limits of freedom of speech and its immersion in controversies, including its publication of several cartoons that could be deemed as anti-Islam, will trigger a re-examination of where the right balance is for the peaceful coexistence of people from different ethnic backgrounds and religious faiths.
Even so, there is no justification whatsoever for cold-blooded murder.
The Charlie Hebdo massacre will certainly add more sensitive questions to the increasingly thorny strife between the Western value of free speech and what people from other backgrounds and religions would deem as hate speech or sacrilege.
As France mourns the dead journalists and police officers, it will have to do some soul-searching about how the republic will prevent such an incident from taking place again, what it will have to do to prevent its Muslim citizens, estimated to be the largest population in Europe, from falling prey to extremist ideology.
Indeed, this is a question that every country will have to ponder as terrorism and extremist elements can spread with no respect for borders.
What the Charlie Hebdo massacre should not bring about, however, is an anti-Islam and anti-immigration sentiment. President Francois Hollande has rightly called the massacre an act of terrorism. It is an act of a few extremists which millions of Muslims would condemn. Immigration is also part of modern life. It's an age of diversity we live in. We must strive to coexist together in peace.