Offices Of Charlie Hebdo Destroyed By Petrol Bomb

According to a slew of international news wire stories this morning, the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were destroyed in the early hours of Wednesday by a petrol bomb. This comes on the day they released their latest issue re-named "Sharia Hebdo" and featuring the Prophet Muhammed on the cover announcing punishment for everyone not laughing. The insides feature an editorial written by Muhammed in much the same vein. In a PR move yesterday, the magazine named the Prophet the magazine's editor-in-chief for that issue.

There were no injuries. Reports also say that the magazine's web site was hacked with messages attacking the new issue. The site was off-line when CR checked it at the time of writing this post.

The current editor-in-chief, the cartoonist Stephan Charbonnier, spoke in rational but defiant terms and cited extremists rather than mainstream French Muslims as the likely culprits. He revealed the magazine had received several threats via social media once the publication's aims were announced. He denied provocation for the sake of provocation, and cited recent political moves in Libya and Tunisia as the events to which the magazine was responding.

The bombing was condemned by French Prime Minister Francois Fillon as well as Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith.

Charlie Hebdo was taken to court in 2007 for its re-publication of the Danish Muhammed Cartoons in a special issue; they were eventually exonerated.
 
posted 5:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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