French weekly publishes Prophet Muhammad cartoons

The front page cartoon had the wheelchair-bound figure saying “You mustn’t mock” under the headline “Untouchable 2”,a reference to a hugely popular French movie about a paralysed rich white man and his black assistant.

The publication came amid widespread outrage over a short film,made with private funds in the United States,that mocks the Prophet and has ignited days of sometimes deadly protests in the Arab world,Africa,Asia and some Western countries.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius criticised the move as a provocation and said he had ordered security beefed up at French diplomatic offices in the Muslim world.

Charlie Hebdo’s Paris offices were fire bombed last November after it published a mocking caricature of Muhammad. In 2005,Danish cartoons of the Prophet sparked a wave of violent protests across the Muslim world that killed at least 50 people.

Many Muslims consider any representation of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad offensive.

“Is it relevant and intelligent in this environment to add fuel to the fire? The answer is no,” Fabius told France Info radio. “I’m very worried… and when I saw this I immediately issued instructions for special security precautions to be taken in all the countries where it could be a problem.”

The government has called for restraint over the cartoons,restating the principles of free speech in France and urging those shocked by the images to take action through the courts.

Muslim leaders in France,which has Europe’s largest Muslim population,have appealed for calm.

As outrage over the anti-Muslim film continues to fuel violence and protests across the Islamic world,French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the authorities had rejected a request to hold a march against the film in Paris.

“There is no reason for us to allow conflicts that do not concern France to enter our country,” Ayrault told RTL radio.

Social media had circulated calls for a protest on Saturday against the film,after police arrested about 150 people who tried to take part in an unauthorised protest near the US Embassy in Paris last week.

France heightens security in embassies across 20 countries

France will close its embassies and schools in around 20 countries on Friday because of fears of a hostile reaction to a magazine’s publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed,the foreign ministry said.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announced that he had ordered special security measures ‘in all the countries where this could pose a problem’.

According to the Telegraph,Fabius admitted that he was ‘concerned’ by the potential for a backlash to satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo’s printing of a series of cartoons featuring the Prophet Mohammed at a time when violent protests have engulfed the Muslim world over an anti-Islam film.

The crudely-made US film is the main subject of Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons,but the sketches are open to wide interpretation.

According to the report,the cover of Charlie Hebdo shows a Muslim in a wheelchair being pushed by an Orthodox Jew under the title ‘Intouchables 2’,referring to an award-winning French film about a poor black man who helps an aristocratic quadriplegic.

Another cartoon on the back page of the weekly magazine shows the prophet re-enacting a scene from a Brigitte Bardot movie.

Charlie Hebdo”s website crashed on Wednesday after being bombarded with comments that ranged from hate mail to approbation.

The magazine”s editor,originally a cartoonist who uses the name Charb,denied he was being deliberately provocative at a delicate time.

“The freedom of the press,is that a provocation?” he said,adding: “I”m not asking strict Muslims to read Charlie Hebdo,just like I wouldn”t go to a mosque to listen to speeches that go against everything I believe.”

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said anyone offended by cartoons could take the matter to the courts after expressing his ‘disapproval of all excesses’,the report added.