Charlie Hebdo's new cover of a crying Prophet Mohammed with the slogan "All is Forgiven" was reproduced by media around the world Tuesday, but some Muslims saw it as blasphemy.
The front page of the French satirical magazine, its first since many of its staff were slain in a jihadist attack last week that
left 12 people dead was widely taken up by media in Western nations and in Latin America.
It shows Mohammed on a green
background under the title "All is forgiven", holding up a sign saying "Je suis Charlie" ("I
am Charlie").
Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Renald "Luz" Luzier said "I cried" after drawing it.
But Egypt's state-sponsored Islamic authority, Dar al-Ifta, quickly denounced it as "an unjustified provocation against the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims".
Violent riots broke out in Egypt and other Muslim countries in early 2006 over Mohammed caricatures first printed by a
Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, and republished by Charlie Hebdo.
Tabnak, a conservative online outlet in Iran, an Islamic republic notorious for throwing
many journalists in jail, stormed that "Charlie Hebdo has again insulted the Prophet".
– English, Turkish, Arabic versions – Major media in many Arab, and some African and Asian countries as well as
Turkey, did not show the cover because many devout Muslims view any depiction of their prophet as forbidden.
Charlie Hebdo is to print up to three million copies of its new "survivors' issue", due out
Wednesday, far more than the usual 60,000 before last week's attack by two Islamist gunmen brought it worldwide prominence, and a historic record for a French publication.
Money from sales will go the
victims' families.
French, Italian and Turkish versions will be printed, while translations in three other
languages , English, Spanish and Arabic will be offered in electronic form, editor-in-
chief Gerard Biard told a Paris news conference.
"Turkey is in a difficult period and secularity there is under attack," Biard said, explaining
why the Turkish version was "the most important".
A Charlie Hebdo columnist, Patrick Pelloux, had previously said the edition would be available in 16 languages. There was no immediate word why that ambition had been scaled back.
The issue will include caricatures by its five murdered cartoonists.
An advance copy obtained by AFP contained cartoons mocking the two Islamists who
carried out the attack. One has them arriving in paradise and asking, "Where are the 70 virgins?"
"With the Charlie team, losers," comes the reply.
The remaining Charlie Hebdo staff who put the issue together said putting Mohammed on the cover showed they would not "cede"
to extremists wanting to silence them.
Yet the fact that many non-European outlets did not reproduce the front page
cartoon revealed unease about the magazine being elevated to a global champion for freedom of expression.
The French publication earned broad sympathy after the bloody attack, but some
voiced reservations — or criticism — about the role now attributed to it.
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