Newspaper Jyllands Posten has offered its support to the French magazine Charlie Hebdo after its Paris offices were gutted by a firebomb on Monday night.
Charlie Hebdo was planning to release a special Arab Spring edition of the magazine on Wednesday entitled “Sharia Hebdo” and featured a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed – the issue’s ‘guest editor’ – on the front cover saying “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter”.
The magazine’s editor, known as Charb, told France Inter Radio that they had received threats on Facebook and Twitter in the run up to the planned publication, but added they had not intended to provoke and that it was simply “business as usual”.
“I sent a note of sympathy to the publisher and chief editor of Charlie Hebdo today,” Jyllands-Posten managing director Lars Munch wrote on the newspaper’s website. “I clearly remember the threats we received in the Mohammed case. It means a lot that you don’t feel alone in this sort of situation.”
The incident is reminiscent of the repeated threats received by Jyllands-Posten after it published 12 cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in 2005, one of which depicted him wearing a bomb in his turban.
The cartoonist who drew that picture, Kurt Westergaard, was attacked in his home in 2010 by an axe-wielding man shouting: “We will get our revenge!” Westergaard survived the attack unharmed after locking himself in a panic room. The intruder was subsequently arrested and convicted of attempted murder and terrorism.
“It’s awful and completely unacceptable that the media’s freedom of speech is threatened with violence,” Munch wrote.
Charlie Hebdo has received broad support after the attack. In addition to Paris authorities pledging to provide new offices for the magazine, French newspaper Libération published Charlie Hebdo as a supplement in yesterday’s edition.
Charlie Hebdo is known for its irreverence to all religions, and in 2007 it reprinted the Jyllands-Posten cartoons. It was later sued by two Islamic groups for incitement to racism, but was acquitted.
Join the debate – Join us on Twitter and Facebook, or leave a comment below.
See related stories
Jordan trial against cartoon is “political”
Mohammed cartoonist faces blasphemy trial
Nine years for Mohammed cartoonist attacker
Mohammed cartoonist attacker pleads innocent to attempted murder charge
Controversial Mohammed cartoonist leaves Jyllands-Posten
