Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, which was held in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

The Curtis Culwell Center attack was a failed terrorist attack on an exhibit featuring cartoon images of Muhammad at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas, US on May 3, 2015, which ended in a shootout with police guarding the event, and the deaths of the two perpetrators. The attackers shot an unarmed Garland Independent School District (GISD) security officer in the ankle. Shortly after opening fire, both attackers were shot by an off-duty Garland police officer and killed by SWAT.

Garland is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located within Dallas County with portions extending into Collin and Rockwall counties. It is located northeast of Dallas and is a part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. In 2020, it had a population of 246,018, making it the 93rd-most populous city in the United States and the 13th-most populous city in Texas. Garland is the third largest city in Dallas County by population and has access to downtown Dallas via public transportation including two DART Blue Line stations and buses. It is known worldwide as the birthplace of Wingstop, which first opened in 1994 and still operates to this day.

On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. in Paris, France, the employees of the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo were targeted in a terrorist shooting attack by two French-born Algerian Muslim brothers, Saïd Kouachi and Chérif Kouachi. Armed with rifles and other weapons, the duo murdered 12 people and injured 11 others; they identified themselves as members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility for the attack. They fled after the shooting, triggering a manhunt, and were killed by the GIGN on 9 January. The Kouachi brothers' attack was followed by several related Islamist terrorist attacks across the Île-de-France between 7 and 9 January 2015, including the Hypercacher kosher supermarket siege, in which a French-born Malian Muslim took hostages and murdered four people before being killed by French commandos.