"If you draw a picture attacking me, I will draw a picture back"

Minutes before the office of Charlie Hebdo was attacked, a drawing on al-Baghdadi was uploaded to Facebook, in which the latter was sending the cartoonists his wishes for the new year specifying his interest in their good health.

We have already taken a look at the drawing on this blog, only it was not a day to be looking at the dramatic elegance of Honoré; his planes of black versus white with each plane contoured by delicate scrolling in which the story line would be unfolding. In the case of a-Baghadi he was speaking on a background of open-ended flourishes (the decorations carved in the stone work on the actual photo we have all seen). It is as if we actually see his declarations bellowing from him.

The flourishes are no longer present in the stencil below, created by Tarek Alghorani on the very day of the murders. With good reason. This one is created for the walls of Raqqa from where IS is operating. So far, if ever, we cannot know if it has been put to use, but it is the first time we have a photo of a stencil intended for the Syrian anti-regime fighters and of which there is constant demand.

And of course no words. They will be added, chosen for that very wall onto which it shall be sprayed. The text with with Tarek presented his stencil on Facebook stated: Down with religious Fascism.

Tarek Alghorani, January 7, 2014, at FREEDOM GRAFFITI WEEK Syria

On the attack on Charlie Hebdo Tarek declared in an article published yesterday on the importance of continuing the fight for freedom and the freedom to speak freely:

"If you write something I don’t like, I can write something saying you’re wrong. If you draw a picture attacking me, I will draw a picture back. In this way, word by word, caption by caption, we can move forward. Not with violence. Violence will not stop anything. Violence is for dictators, for terrorists. It’s for everyone who wants to make us frightened. 

No, we will not give them that. We must continue.”

- And please put the stencil to use anywhere a wall seems right.