(This post is direct from THE INQUISITR on 19 September 2012.)
In a
move that is certain to draw anger from the Muslim community, French satirical
magazine Charlie Hebdo has printed a set of cartoons featuring
the Prophet Muhammad including at least one depicting the prophet naked.
The
cover of Charlie Hebdo (seen above) shows a Muslim in a
wheelchair being pushed by an Orthodox Jew under the title Intouchables 2, referring to
an award-winning French film about a impoverished black man who helps an
aristocratic quadriplegic. Another cartoon on the back page of the weekly
magazine shows a naked Mohammed exposing his backside to a film director.
According
to HuffPo,
Charlie Hebdo’s Paris offices were fire bombed last November after it published
similar mocking caricatures of Mohammed.
Sky News reported the magazine’s editor, a former cartoonist named
Stephane Charbonnier, denied he was being deliberately provocative with the
images, “but rather using its freedom of expression to comment (on) the news in
a satirical way.”
“The
freedom of the press, is that a provocation? I’m not asking strict Muslims to
read Charlie Hebdo, just like I wouldn’t go to a mosque to listen to speeches
that go against everything I believe.”
Meanwhile, CNN reported that Parisian kiosks sold out all copies of the magazine almost as soon as it hit the shelves. Charlie Hebdo’s website went down soon after the issue was published.
In
response the magazine’s decision to run the controversial cartoons, the French
government, which had urged Hebdo not to print the images, said it was
temporarily shutting down premises including embassies and schools in 20
countries on Friday when protests sometimes break out after Muslim prayers.
“I am
against all provocations, especially during a period as sensitive as this one.
I do not see any usefulness in such provocation,” French Foreign Minister Laurent
Fabius told the radio station France Info. “There must be freedom of speech,
but I am absolutely opposed to any provocation.”
CNN
has more on Charlie Hebdo’s controversial Mohammed cartoons in the video below:
"To me it seems certain that the fatalistic teachings of Mohammad and the utter degradation of women is the outstanding cause for the arrested development of the Arab."
General George S. Patton (1885-1945) U.S. Army