Israel Matzav

WaPo prints Charlie Hebdo cover

You have to give credit to the mainstream media where credit is due. The Washington Post has printed the cover of the Charlie Hebdo magazine which will be released on Wednesday.

The Charlie Hebdo cover — in which a tearful caricature of Muhammad is shown below the phrase “Tout est pardonné,” or “All is forgiven” — was posted Monday night in Comic Riffs, a Post blog. The cover cartoon shows the turbaned, bearded figure holding a sign saying “Je suis Charlie,” or “I am Charlie,” the global rallying cry following an attack on the French publication last week that left 12 dead in Paris.

Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron approved publication of the image on The Post’s blog and in the newspaper. It is apparently the first time a Muhammad depiction has appeared in The Post’s news columns. Baron said last week that the paper’s policy was to avoid publication of material that is “deliberately” offensive to religious groups but said Monday that the new Charlie Hebdo cartoon did not meet that criterion.

“We’ve never maintained that simply publishing an image of Muhammad itself was offensive,” Baron said. “Our policy has been to avoid publication of material that is pointedly, deliberately or needlessly offensive to members of religious groups. That remains our policy, but this doesn’t fall into that category.”

Charlie Hebdo’s attorney, Richard Malka, told a French radio station that the new issue — to be published Wednesday — would contain images of Muhammad. “We will not give in,” he said. ‘The spirit of ‘Je suis Charlie’ means the right to blaspheme.”

Read the whole thing.

Meanwhile, the London Telegraph has published the ravings of Islamist preacher Anjem Chaudhary who called the Charlie Hebdo cover 'an act of war.'

Any image of Mohammed is considered blasphemous by Muslims, and Anjem Choudary, an extremist preacher, described the latest Charlie Hebdo as “an act of war”.

He said: “I'm sure there's someone somewhere who will take the law into his own hands. It's inevitable.”

Mr Choudary, a lecturer in Shariah law who was arrested and bailed in September as part of an investigation into Islamist terrorism, said the magazine’s publishers “know exactly what they're doing and they know the reaction of the Muslims. It's blatant provocation.

“It’s not just a cartoon…it's insulting, it's ridiculing, it's provoking. I think it's an act of war, quite frankly.”

What could go wrong?

Labels: Charlie Hebdo, Eurabia, Islamic terrorism, Londonistan

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:48 PM