Police say the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo have been destroyed by a petrol bomb.
According to the BBC, “It comes a day after the publication named the Prophet Muhammad as its ‘editor-in-chief’ for its next issue.”
The magazine has been in trouble before over Islam – notably the question of the Danish cartoons. But it’s back to the question of freedom of speech, isn’t it, which we were discussing (well I was discussing) in the last post?
But that’s something that humourless Muslims don’t believe in. Oh, I’m sure they’re not all like that, but the ones that get the ear of the media clearly are, those who set themselves up as self-appointed “leaders” of the Muslim “community”.
So go to the BBC story and read it, so that efforts to gag are to some extent, at least, thwarted. Anyway, it has some rather amusing bits by way of explanation, such as:
“The edition of the paper which was being published on Wednesday was called Charia Hebdo – a play on the Islamic word sharia.
“The cover shows Muhammad saying: ‘100 lashes if you are not dying of laughter’. “Inside there is an editorial, attributed to the Prophet, and more cartoons – one showing the Prophet Muhammad with a clown's red nose.”
The story then adds: “Depiction of the Prophet is strictly prohibited in Islam.” Prohibited in Islam. Note the preposition here. It’s not prohibited outside Islam, last I heard.
