The editor of Charlie Hebdo has said that cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed will no longer be published by the French satirical magazine, six months after 12 people were killed in an attack on its Paris offices by Islamist gunmen.
The magazine has frequently provoked outrage among Muslims by publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, whose image is considered blasphemous by many followers of Islam. Its “survivors’ issue”, the first to be published after January’s attack, featured a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on the front page.
But Charlie Hebdo editor Laurent Sourisseau, also known by his pen name “Riss”, told German magazine Stern that the Prophet Mohammed would no longer appear in the magazine’s pages.
“We have drawn Mohammed to defend the principle that one can draw whatever they want. We’ve done our job. We have defended the right to caricature,” Sourisseau said.
“We still believe that we have the right to criticise all religions,” he added.
Riss took over as Charlie Hebdo’s editor in the wake of January attack – which he survived by playing dead – taking over the role from Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnier, who was killed in the massacre.
Riss’s announcement comes after one of the magazine’s most prominent cartoonists Rénald “Luz” Luzier said in April he would no longer draw the Prophet Mohammed as it “no longer interests me”.
Luz, who drew the front cover of the “survivors’ issue”, quit the magazine altogether a month later.
Source: France24