Ten years after the deadly attack on its offices that shocked France, Charlie Hebdo magazine is marking the anniversary with a cartoon contest mocking God, with the deadline for submitting applications on Sunday.
The satirical weekly was targeted on 7 January 2014 by two Islamic extremists, who shot dead eight members of staff, including some of the country’s most famous cartoonists, inside its premises in central Paris.
The attackers – two brothers who were later killed by police – targeted Charlie Hebdo following its decision to publish caricatures ridiculing Islam’s most revered figure, the Prophet Mohammed.
In typically provocative style, a staunchly atheist magazine has invited cartoonists to submit the “funniest and bawdy” drawings mocking God ahead of the anniversary.
Launching it last month with a deadline of December 15, it carried a message “Everyone who is fed up of living in a society guided by God and religion. Everyone who is fed up with the so-called good and bad. Everyone who is fed up with religious leaders dictating our lives.”
There was no immediate confirmation of how many were sent for publication.
free speech defense
The attack on Charlie Hebdo brought an outpouring of sympathy and solidarity towards the editorial team of “Je Suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”) and the famous cartoonists Cabou, Charb, Honoré, Tignous and Wolinsky who lost their lives. Gave.
The massacre was part of several conspiracies inspired by Islamism that killed hundreds of people in France and Western Europe over the following years.
Ahead of the 10th anniversary, the magazine has published a book featuring the work of its deceased contributors and is likely to see a public tribute on the day of the attacks.
Since its founding in 1970, Charlie Hebdo has regularly tested the limits of French hate speech laws, which protect minorities and outlaw those who incite violence but allow criticism and mockery of religion. Let’s give.
Defenders of free speech in France see the ability to criticize and ridicule religion as a significant victory in the country’s centuries-long battle to avoid the influence of the Catholic Church.
But critics argue that Charlie Hebdo has been unnecessarily offensive to believers and even Islamophobic people, pointing to caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that appear to link Islam to terrorism.
It regularly publishes cartoons satirizing other religions, including Christianity.
In August, depictions of the Virgin Mary suffering from the mumps virus led to two legal complaints from Catholic organizations.
On the first anniversary of the attack, the weekly published a front-page cartoon of a bearded god-like figure holding a Kalashnikov rifle under the headline “One year later, the killer is still on the run”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
