Charlie Hebdo to publish Mohammad cartoon on front page
(Agencies) Updated: 2015-01-14 10:03
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The Brandenburg Gate is seen through a European Union (EU) flag with the words reading 'I am Charlie' during a vigil organised by Muslim groups for the victims of last week's shooting by gunmen at the offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, in Berlin January 13, 2015. [Photo/Agencies] |
RIGHT TO BLASPHEME
The new edition of Charlie Hebdo, known for its satirical attacks on Islam and other religions, will include other cartoons featuring the Prophet Mohammad and also making fun of politicians and other religions, its lawyer said.
"We will not back down, otherwise none of this has any meaning," Richard Malka told French radio. "If you hold the banner 'I am Charlie', that means you have the right to blaspheme, you have the right to criticise my religion."
There was no official reaction from the French government on the new edition.
At a regular news briefing, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said: "We absolutely support the right of Charlie Hebdo to publish things like this. Again, that's what happens in a democracy. Period."
Egypt's Grand Mufti warned Charlie Hebdo against publishing a new Mohammad caricature, saying it was a racist act that would incite hatred and upset Muslims around the world.
One Paris newspaper vendor said he had received 200 advance orders for Charlie Hebdo and was stopping there as he could no longer cope.
French Muslim leaders urged their community to keep calm and respect the right to freedom of expression.
"What is uncomfortable for us is the representation of the Prophet," Abdelbaki Attaf told Reuters at the funeral in the northern Paris suburb of Bobigny of Ahmed Merabet, the Muslim policeman shot trying to defend the Hebdo cartoonists.
"Any responsible Muslim will find it hard to accept that. But we shouldn't ban it," said Attaf, an administrator at the mosque in nearby Gennevilliers occasionally visited by Cherif Kouachi, one of the Hebdo killers.
A separate funeral was held in Jerusalem for four Jewish victims of a hostage-taking in a kosher grocery shop in Paris.
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