Satirical newspaper #CharlieHebdo was torched a few days ago by ‘religious zealots’. Secular status update. NSFW
A blaze ravaged the premises of French satirical weekly ‘Charlie Hebdo’ on November 2, 2011. Witnesses immediately reported two men running away from the scene as the fire began.
The suspicion of a criminal act was soon confirmed by Molotov cocktails found by the firemen among the ashes.
This arson follows a massive campaign of hatred comments posted on the Facebook page of the notorious paper. Meanwhile, hackers located in Turkey also hijacked Charlie’s website and imprecated against the ‘disgusting’ (Forbidden?) picturing of the Prophet (Are pictures of Muhammad Really Forbidden In Islam?).
The hackers’ message
The attacks came after the newspaper rebranded ‘Charia Hebdo’ for a special issue against religious radicalism, echoing the generic name of the Sharia, which encompasses various praxes inspiring the religious Law adopted by most Muslim States.
The issue in question: “100 lashes of the whip if you do not laugh out loud!”
Although focussed on Islamic radicalism, ‘Charia Hebdo’ also reports on Catholic extremism with articles on the recent demonstrations against an art exhibition (Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ), a theatre play (“On the Concept of the Son of God’s Face” by Italian Romeo Castellucci) and the long lasting opposition of the Catholic Church against contraception and abortion rights.
The flood of comments triggered by the campaign opposing those ‘against’ and those ‘for’ Charlie Hebdo prompted Facebook to wear the mantel of the censor and to close Charlie’s page as ‘offensive’, like it did a few months ago with a page showing Courbet’s nude painting ‘L’origine de monde‘. Mark Zuckerberg might be interested to know that the original is exhibited in the rather-high-brow-and-not-really-cheap-porn Orsay Museum in Paris, which millions of tourists travel half the world to visit each year.
L’origine du monde by Courbet, 1866.
Of course, as a satirical non-conformist media, Charlie is clearly not politically correct. It unashamedly chooses provocation to make a point, and has been doing so since 1960! For instance last year, it re-published the cartoons of Mohammed from Danish newspaper ‘Jyllands-Posten’ that infuriated Muslim radicals around the world. However Charlie treats all religions on an equal and oecumenical foot. Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Communists, Free Marketers, etal have all been derided and laughed at in a balanced manner.
The Danish cartoons issue: “It’s hard to be love by jerks”
Whatever the grief religious zealots have, “such criminal actions cannot be tolerated” stated Claude Géant, Ministry of the Interior. Although his Conservative party, and President Sarkozy in particular, are usual targets of Charlie Hebdo’s cartoonists, they called for all citizens to show solidarity with the newspaper and to uphold the freedom of laugh (not to mention ‘of speech’). Liberation newspaper even went beyond the call of duty by inviting Charlie’s team until new offices and computers could be organised.
“Charlie’s team is welcome at Liberation until new offices and computers can be organised. We’ll squeeze!”
So here we go. Here is a selection of Charlie’s take-no-prisoner unique signature satire style ….
{ NKN, Paris, 10 November 2011 }
Sarkozy welcoming Kahdafi in Paris in 2007: “Here’s for you my brave man, the service was exquisite”
Heads of States meet for a Summit: “the suppository and the asshole” (Sarkozy is on the right)
Does racism boost sales? (“Jewish bum” on the arrow – “we will tell you if has boosted sales next week”)
It’s raining men, alleluia! (in July 2011 on DSK’s return from New York after charges were dropped in the Sofitel Affair)
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