Comment: We must unite over terror fight
The horrifying scenes in Paris as masked gunmen struck at the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, claiming a dozen lives, have shocked the world.
It was a terrible attack on freedom of speech and democracy and we send our French neighbours our sincere sympathy at the toll taken on their innocent countrymen.
These apparent extreme Islamist terrorists do not speak for the vast majority of Muslims and almost every Muslim on the planet will have been just as appalled by the attack as everyone else.
It is imperative that the killers, who caused such mayhem in the French capital, are tracked down as quickly as possible and are brought to justice to show that they cannot win by inflicting appalling violence.
It appears they wanted revenge for cartoons published by the newspaper, which satirised the Prophet Muhammed and an Isis leader.
Three cartoonists and editor Stephanie Charbonnier were among those murdered as the gunmen armed with assault rifles burst into the newspaper's daily editorial meeting.
The message to the UK from the Parisian bloodbath is that we must not be complacent and think such chilling scenes could not happen here.
Such an attack could just as easily have happened in central London, Birmingham or even Wolverhampton.
While the chances of such a major terrorist attack in the Black Country, Staffordshire or Worcestershire are mercifully negligible, we must continue to remain vigilant against potential terrorism, however we must also not let them win by spreading their terror.
We have to go on with our day-to-day lives and not let fear dominate.
That is what those who struck in Paris really want. They want all of us to be afraid and not to have free speech and the right to use humour to show up evil.
The cowardly and bloodthirsty killers' actions have rightly been condemned around the globe. The world must stand together – they must not be allowed to win.
