Rabat – French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo announced today its decision to again publish caricatures depicting the prophet Muhammad, in a special edition. The magazine will disseminate it in print tomorrow, September 2.
Charlie Hebdo will publish its special edition titled “Tout ca pour ca” or “All that for this,” featuring 13 caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. These include 12 that Danish daily Jyllands Posten posted on September 30, 2005, and another that Jean Cabut, one of the 2015 victims, drew.
Numéro spécial : Tout ça pour ça.
Retrouvez :
👉 Un florilège des charognards du 7 janvier 2015
👉 Procès : la parole aux familles
👉 Sondage exclusif @IfopOpinion : la liberté d'expression c'est important, mais…Disponible dès demain ! pic.twitter.com/NyiTmva6Kr
— Charlie Hebdo (@Charlie_Hebdo_) September 1, 2020
One of the controversial caricatures features the prohet of Islam waring a bomb on his head rather than a turban, while another shows him with a knife flanked by two women veiled in black.
Charlie Hebdo’s move coincides with the trial of suspects in the January 2015 shooting at the magazine’s headquarters in Paris, killing 12 staff members.
The trial will take place between September 2 and 10, at the Special Assize Court in Paris, to try 14 individuals on charges of terrorism for their involvement in the shooting.
“Reproducing these cartoons this week of the opening of the January 2015 terrorist attacks seemed essential to us,” explained the editorial team of the magazine, according to the French Press Agency (AFP).
Director of Charlie Hebdo Laurent Sourisseau, also known as Riss, said, “We will never sleep. We will never give up.”
During the January 2015 shooting, two gunmen forced their way into the office, shouting “Allahu Akbar” and “the prophet is avenged.” President Francois Hollande labeled the incident a terrorist attack.
French authorities identified the two shooters as Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, French Muslim brothers of Algerian descent.
Charlie Hebdo reproduced in 2006 the 12 caricatures of the prophet Muhammad that the Danish daily published in 2005.
On November 3, 2011, Charlie Hebdo published an edition with a caricature of the prophet Muhammad on the cover, with the slogan “Charia Hebdo,” and a speech balloon that says “100 lashes of the whip if you don’t die laughing.”
The same month, a bombing took place in front of the magazine’s office.
In September 2012, the weekly magazine published a series of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, some of which featured him naked.
Charlie Hebdo’s controversial reputation
According to its critics, Charlie Hebdo mocks not only Islam, but also death and misfortune. One famous example is of a Syrian child, Aylan Kurdi, whose photo spread after he was found dead on a Turkish beach amid the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015.
The French magazine issued two drawings, one titled “So Close to His Goal,” featuring Aylan lying face down on the beach, near a McDonalds Happy Meal billboard that says “two children’s menus for the price of one.”
The second, titled “The Proof that Europe is Christian,” featured a man, supposedly Jesus Christ, standing on water next to a little child drowning, with text that says “Christians walk on water… Muslim kids sink.”
Charlie Hebdo is known for its shocking, controversial satirical caricatures that target a wide range of issues in a wide range of contexts.
The magazine sparked a major controversy when it published a caricature in August 2017 depicting victims of Hurricane Harvey, which hit the same month, as neo-Nazis.
“God Exists! He drowned all the Neo-Nazis of Texas!” wrote the magazine on a caricature featuring half-submerged swastika flags and Nazi saluters drowning in the water.
