Mustapha Ourrad
{{Short description|French Algerian copy editor killed during the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting}}
Mustapha Ourrad (June 21, 1954 – January 7, 2015){{Cite web |title=matchID - Moteur de recherche des décès |url=https://deces.matchid.io/id/iFLuAPiTaaw_ |access-date=2024-08-21 |website=deces.matchid.io}} was a French Algerian copy editor, killed during the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting.{{Cite news |last=Audrerie |first=Sabine |date=2015-01-09 |title=Mustapha Ourrad, correcteur à « Charlie Hebdo », avait la France au cœur |language=fr-FR |work=La Croix |url=https://www.la-croix.com/Culture/Actualite/Mustapha-Ourrad-correcteur-a-Charlie-Hebdo-avait-la-France-au-caeur-2015-01-09-1264921 |access-date=2022-04-08 |issn=0242-6056}}
Biography
Mustapha Ourrad was born in 1954 in Aït Larbâa, Algeria. Orphaned after his mother died when he was 2 and his father when he was 7, Ourrad was taken in and raised by two of his uncles. After completing secondary school, he began studying medicine in Algiers before abandoning it.{{Cite news |last=Azzouzi |first=Hafid |date=2015-01-10 |title=Les citoyens se souviennent de Mustapha Ourad |language=fr |work=El Watan |url=http://www.elwatan.com/actualite/les-citoyens-se-souviennent-de-mustapha-ourad-10-01-2015-284473_109.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150110135125/http://www.elwatan.com/actualite/les-citoyens-se-souviennent-de-mustapha-ourad-10-01-2015-284473_109.php |archive-date=2015-01-10}} He was much more interested in culture—be it art, literature, or philosophy. (Nietzsche was one of his favorite philosophers.) One of his favorite books was Albert Cossery's Mendiants et orgueilleux,{{Cite news |date=2015-01-07 |title=Attentat contre « Charlie Hebdo » : Charb, Cabu, Wolinski et les autres, assassinés dans leur rédaction |language=fr |work=Le Monde |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2015/01/07/les-dessinateurs-et-journalistes-tues_4550767_3224.html |access-date=2022-04-08}} and his childhood friend Ousmer later said Ourrad also loved André Gide, André Malraux, and Charles Baudelaire, which earned him the nickname "Mustapha Baudelaire."{{Cite news |last=Brahimi |first=Imene |date=2015-01-08 |title=REPORTAGE. Á Aït Larba, village natal de Mustapha Ourrad, l'Algérien tué à Charlie Hebdo |language=fr |work=Tout sur L'algérie |url=http://www.tsa-algerie.com/2015/01/08/reportage-a-ait-larba-village-natal-de-mustapha-ourrad-lalgerien-tue-a-charlie-hebdo/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109053808/http://www.tsa-algerie.com/2015/01/08/reportage-a-ait-larba-village-natal-de-mustapha-ourrad-lalgerien-tue-a-charlie-hebdo/ |archive-date=2015-01-09}}
He left Algeria at age 20 and arrived in France in 1974, with his friends paying for his passage. He became a French citizen in December 2014.{{Cite web |date=2015-01-09 |title=Frank Brinsolara, Ahmed Merabet, Mustapha Ourad, Frédéric Boisseau: portraits des victimes anonymes de Charlie Hebdo |url=http://www.sudinfo.be/art/1185967/article/2015-01-09/frank-brinsolara-ahmed-merabet-mustapha-ourad-frederic-boisseau-portraits-des-vi |access-date=2022-04-08 |website=Sudinfo |language=fr}}
Ourrad joined the publisher Hachette, where he worked as a copy editor, notably on the Axis encyclopedia. He then worked for various publications, including Viva and Charlie Hebdo. It was at the latter newspaper's headquarters that he was killed on January 7, 2015, one of the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting.
He was posthumously named a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour on December 31, 2015.{{Cite web |date=2016-01-01 |title=Décret du 31 décembre 2015 portant nomination |url=https://www.legiondhonneur.fr/sites/default/files/lh20160101_2.pdf |access-date=2022-04-08 |website=La Légion d'honneur |language=fr}} On January 13, 2016, the first day of the Amazigh year, members of the Kabyle diaspora paid homage to him in Paris.{{Cite news |date=2016-01-07 |title=Charlie Hebdo : Il y a un an était assassiné notre compatriote kabyle, Mustapha Ourrad, dans l'attentat islamo-terroriste du 7 janvier 2014 |language=fr |work=Siwel |url=https://www.siwel.info/Charlie-Hebdo-Il-y-a-un-an-etait-assassine-notre-compatriote-kabyle-Mustapha-Ourrad-dans-l-attentat-islamo-terroriste_a8362.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819085131/http://www.siwel.info/Charlie-Hebdo-Il-y-a-un-an-etait-assassine-notre-compatriote-kabyle-Mustapha-Ourrad-dans-l-attentat-islamo-terroriste_a8362.html |archive-date=2016-08-19 |access-date=2022-04-08 |url-status=bot: unknown }} His remains lie at Paris' Père Lachaise Cemetery.{{Cite web |date=2015-01-16 |title=Dans son village natal en Algérie, un hommage musulman au correcteur de "Charlie Hebdo" |url=https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/dans-son-village-natal-en-algerie-un-hommage-musulman-au-correcteur-de-charlie-hebdo-16-01-2015-1896996_23.php |access-date=2022-04-08 |website=Le Point |language=fr}}