Charb with the paper's last Muhammad issue
The same photo as it appeared in al-Arabiya
In picking up this story from AFP, al-Arabiya includes the photo above, carefully censored so as not to touch off another round of murderous rage from Islamic supremacists. They thus indicate that violent intimidation works: if someone will riot and kill over what someone else says or does, it is increasingly taken for granted in this thoroughly confused world that the responsibility lies with the one who has given offense, rather than with the one who has taken it. The idea that one is in control of one's own reactions and bears sole responsibility for them is increasingly lost in the face of the Islamic supremacist onslaught against the freedom of speech.
And so it will be with this comic book: if Muslims riot and kill once it is published, there will be new calls, even in the Western "free" press, for self-censorship and criminalization of "insults" to Islam. No one will say that free speech is our foremost defense against tyranny, and that those who riot and kill because of someone else's actions are the only ones responsible for what they do. Such is the madness and cowardice that has overtaken the public discourse.
"French paper to publish comic book life of Prophet Mohammed," from AFP, December 30:
A French weekly known for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to the ire of conservative Muslims said Sunday it plans to release a comic book biography of Islam’s founder that will be researched and educational.Satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has on several occasions depicted Islam’s prophet in an effort to defend free speech and defy the anger of Muslims who believe depicting Mohammed is sacrilegious.
“It is a biography authorized by Islam since it was edited by Muslims,” said Charlie Hebdo’s publisher and the comic’s illustrator, who goes by the name Charb.
“I don’t think higher Muslim minds could find anything inappropriate,” Charb said.
Oh, just you wait.
The biography will be published Wednesday and was put together by a Franco-Tunisian researcher known only as Zineb, Charb said.The publisher said the idea for the comic book came to him in 2006 when a newspaper in Denmark published cartoons of Mohammed, later republished by Charlie Hebdo, drawing angry protests across the Muslim world.
“Before having a laugh about a character, it’s better to know him. As much as we know about the life of Jesus, we know nothing about Mohammed,” Charb said.
In September Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of a naked Mohammed as violent protests were taking place in several countries over a low-budget film made in the United States that insults the prophet.
In 2011 Charlie Hebdo’s offices were hit by a firebomb and its website pirated after publishing an edition titled “Charia Hebdo” featuring several Mohammed cartoons.
Charb, who has received death threats, lives under police protection.
RSS Feed
I went to Charlie Weekly's site and looked at some of their stuff. Granted, French isn't my best reading language, but they seem to be somewhat nasty towards the Jews, too.