The offices of a French satirical weekly known as Charlie Hebdo were firebombed yesterday morning after it announced that Mohammed would be its “editor-in-chief” for the next issue.
According to The Telegraph, the magazine which is famous for its anti-clericalism, decided to publish a special issue, renamed “Sharia Hebdo” to celebrate the victory of the Islamist party in Tunisia, but they never got the chance. A single Molotov cocktail was thrown at the magazine’s Paris office around 1:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. The ensuing fire destroyed almost everything inside.
The magazine’s website was also hacked with a message in English and Turkish cursing the magazine.
The message said: “You keep abusing Islam’s almighty Prophet with disgusting and disgraceful cartoons using excuses of freedom of speech. Be God’s curse upon you!”
The paper’s editor, Charlie Hedbo, told France Info radio that he and his staff are now “homeless.”
“We no longer have a newspaper. All our equipment has been destroyed or has melted. We cannot, today, put together a paper,” he said. “But we will do everything possible to do one next week. Whatever happens, we’ll do it. There is no question of giving in.”
He went on to say the attackers could not even have read the offending magazine because it had not yet hit newstands. “The arsonists haven’t read this paper, nobody knows what’s in the paper except those who buy it this morning,” he told BFM TV. “People are reacting violently to a paper without knowing anything of its contents, that’s what’s most abhorrent and stupid.”
The trouble started just after Hedbo issued a statement on Monday announcing the special edition. “To fittingly celebrate the victory of the Islamist Ennahda party in Tunisia… Charlie Hebdo has asked Mohammed to be the special editor-in-chief of its next issue”, the magazine said in a statement. “The prophet of Islam didn’t have to be asked twice and we thank him for it.”
The cover of the issue, which came out yesterday, shows Mohammed saying: “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter.”
It also includes an editorial by the Prophet entitled Halal Aperitif and a women’s supplement called Madam Sharia.
Police say they are looking for two suspects who were seen fleeing the scene but no one has been taken into custody for the crime.
Condemnation of the bombing has been swift from French authorities.
“Those who did this designate themselves as enemies of democracy,” said Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, minister of economy. “You don’t negotiate the freedom of the press with bombs…If you are not happy with what’s in a newspaper, you take it to court.”
Anti-terrorism experts such as Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch are also disturbed by the attack and are waiting to see how the French government responds.
“How long is the West going to put up with this? There are two choices: stand up for the freedom of speech and prosecute the Islamic thugs who are trying to destroy it, either by violent or non-violent means; or surrender, and place Islam and Muslims beyond criticism, in which case their jihad and the spread of Sharia in the West will advance unimpeded.”
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