(A policeman stands guard outside the French satirical weekly “Charlie Hebdo” in Paris, February 9, 2006 after the publication reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in its February 8, 2006 edition. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau)
Sometimes funny, often crass, always irreverent. Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical weekly that has published lewd cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad is a serial offender and proud of it.
As copies of the magazine priced at 2.50 euros ($3.25) flew off French news stands on Wednesday, its publishers insisted as always on their right to poke fun at all symbols of political and religious authority in the name of freedom of expression.
Several of the caricatures relied on drawings of genitals to mock the furor over a film made in the United States that depicts the Prophet as a lecher, confirming Charlie Hebdo’s reputation for no-limits satire.
“To me, these religious hardliners who protest and kill over a crappy film are no different to the people who made the crappy film. They’re all the same pack, a bunch of assholes,” editor Stephane Charbonnier, under police protection since printing similar caricatures last November, told Reuters.
