The French newspaper Charlie Hebdo’s staple is to be provocative — poking fun at popes, presidents as well as the Prophet Muhammad.
The satirical weekly attacked Wednesday by gunmen, killing at least 12, has a history of drawing outrage across the Muslim world with crude cartoons of Islam’s holiest figure. The magazine’s offices were firebombed in November 2011 after it published a spoof issue that “invited” Muhammad to be its guest editor and put his caricature on the cover.
A year later, the magazine published more Muhammad drawings amid an uproar over an anti-Muslim film. The cartoons depicted Muhammad naked and in demeaning poses. As passions raged, the French government defended free speech even as it rebuked Charlie Hebdo for fanning tensions.
The small-circulation weekly leans toward the left and takes pride in making acerbic commentary on world affairs through cartoons and spoof reports.
“We treat the news like journalists. Some use cameras, some use computers. For us, it’s a paper and pencil,” the Muhammad cartoonist, who goes by the name Luz, told The Associated Press in 2012. “A pencil is not a weapon. It’s just a means of expression.”
Chief editor Stephane Charbonnier, who publishes under the pen name “Charb,” has also defended the Muhammad cartoons.
“Muhammad isn’t sacred to me,” he told The AP in 2012. “I don’t blame Muslims for not laughing at our drawings. I live under French law. I don’t live under Quranic law.”
Islam is not alone in being singled out by Charlie Hebdo’s satire. Past covers include retired Pope Benedict XVI in amorous embrace with a Vatican guard; former French President Nicolas Sarkozy looking like a sick vampire; and an Orthodox Jew kissing a Nazi soldier.
The magazine occasionally publishes investigative journalism, taking aim at France’s high and mighty.
Charlie Hebdo has come under pressure ever since its 2011 Muhammad issue. Its website has been hacked, and Charbonnier has needed police protection. Riot police guarded the magazine’s offices after the 2012 issue hit the stands.
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
3 Responses
Yes, and do you remember all the attacks that Jews and Christians perpetrated when those drawings were printed? Precisely. THERE WEREN’T ANY.
just like you don’t remember all the attacks and riots by white people when OJ was acquitted.
Why do all their cartoon characters always look so scuzzy and gross like that? Is that the way they really see the world? Are they all like that?
Then they get mad at us when we don’t put it in front of our children.
I don’t understand why if they were drawing characters(in general) they wouldn’t make it more opulent and healthy looking, or artistic and beautiful with strong cool images.
I don’t like it here it’s horrible. They make everything like they make their cartoons.
The difference between who they try to offend is that we don’t go and kill them.