Muslim leaders appeal for calm as Charlie Hebdo special hits the streets | World news | The GuardianMuslim leaders appeal for calm as Charlie Hebdo special hits the streets | World news | The Guardian










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Islam



Muslim leaders appeal for calm as Charlie Hebdo special hits the streets









Decision to put cartoon of prophet on front cover condemned as first edition since Paris attacks is instant sellout


• Where can you buy a copy of Charlie Hebdo?














People wait outside a newsagents in Paris as the latest edition of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo went on sale. Photograph: Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images




Anne Penketh in Paris, and 
Matthew Weaver in London


Wednesday 14 January 2015 05.44 EST







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Muslims have reacted warily to Charlie Hebdo’s defiant cover depicting the prophet Muhammad.
The French satirical weekly was accused of deliberately mocking the Islamic faith and warned that it could fuel further sectarian unrest.
French Muslim leaders appealed for calm after the cover of the magazine’s special edition, which was an instant sellout on Wednesday with long queues forming at newsstands across France, was leaked ahead of publication.
“They’re free to publish what they like but it affects us, it’s going to hurt us a lot,” a Muslim woman identified as Salya told France Info radio from outside a mosque in Clichy-La-Garenne, a Paris suburb inhabited by many Muslims originally from north Africa.
Outside France, Muslim leaders condemned the weekly’s decision to put a cartoon of the prophet back on the cover. It shows a weeping prophet holding up a sign saying “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”), the slogan of global solidarity with the magazine’s journalists who were killed in their offices last Wednesday. The headline reads “All is forgiven”.
A Turkish state-run news agency said a court ordered the telecommunications authority to ban access to websites showing the cover. Anadolu Agency said the ban was ordered by a court in the south-eastern city of Diyarbakir. A lawyer in Diyarbakir filed a petition saying the websites were a danger to “public order”.
Earlier, police stopped trucks leaving a pro-secular newspaper’s printing centre and checked the paper’s content after it decided to print a selection of Charlie Hebdo caricatures.
In the Philippines, police said about 1,500 people protested in the Muslim-majority city of Marawi, with local politicians and teenage students packing the main square and some raising their fists in the air as a Charlie Hebdo poster was burned.
“What happened in France, the Charlie Hebdo killing, is a moral lesson for the world to respect any kind of religion, especially the religion of Islam,” the organisers said in a statement released during the three-hour rally, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported. “Freedom of expression does not extend to insulting the noble and the greatest prophet of Allah.”
In Egypt, the Islamic research centre at Al-Azhar, the Muslim world’s foremost authority, warned that the cartoons risked stirring up hatred.
The drawings “do not serve the peaceful coexistence between peoples and hinder the integration of Muslims into European and western societies”, it said in a statement.
The Egyptian grand mufti, the country’s most influential Muslim cleric, said the cover was “racist” while Dar al-Ifta, an Egyptian Islamic educational authority, described it as “an unjustified provocation against the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims”.
A leading association of Muslim academics based in Qatar and lead by preacher Yusuf al-Qaradawi claimed it would “stir up hatred”.
“It is neither reasonable, nor logical, nor wise to publish drawings and films offensive or attacking the prophet of Islam,” the International Union of Muslim Scholars said in a statement, AFP reported.
The press in Muslim countries did not publish the cover for fear of offending Islamic sensibilities.
In Iran, foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham condemned the cartoon of the prophet as insulting and provocative. She said the cover “provokes the emotions of Muslims and hurts their feelings around the world, and could fan the flame of a vicious circle of extremism”.
Charlie Hebdo’s journalists have defended their decision to publish, appealing to readers’ sense of humour and intelligence.
But the rightwing French newspaper Le Figaro said Muslims would be torn over the magazine’s editorial choice, saying “the depiction of the prophet Muhammad, which is forbidden by Islam, puts Muslims in an uncomfortable position”.
Abdallah Zekri, the president of the Observatory against Islamophobia, warned in the paper: “This will add fuel to the fire.
“I don’t mean to be disobliging about journalists but they are carrying on with their provocation. Muhammad, Muhammad, always Muhammad … he died 15 centuries ago!” Zekri added that he had received many reactions from outraged Muslims, adding that “I understand them”.
Dozens of imams in Britain have urged Muslims to react with restraint to Charlie Hebdo’s depictions of the prophet.
In a 10-point advice sheet issued by the Muslim Council of Britain, which was signed by more than 50 Muslim leaders, the imams said “freedom of speech should not be translated into a duty to offend”, and they urged Muslims to express their “justified displeasure at the mockery that is made of our faith” in a peaceful manner.
Copies of the new magazine will be available in an English-language version in Britain from Friday.
The Muslim Council advised Muslims to react with “dignified nobility”. Its advice sheet says: “Our reaction must be a reflection of the teachings of the gentle and merciful character of the prophet (peace be upon him). Enduring patience, tolerance, gentleness and mercy as was the character of our beloved prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is the best and immediate way to respond.”
It added that depictions of the prophet “cannot tarnish his image” and urged Muslims to speak out. It said: “Engage with others about your feelings. Speak of your love for the prophet (peace be upon him) and do not be shy to let your non-Muslim friends know your justified displeasure at the mockery that is made of our faith. People need to know how much love we have for our prophet.”
Sara Khan, a co-director of the counter-extremism and women’s rights organisation Inspire, said the cover image was not offensive. “The image on the front cover is not an image of anger on behalf of Charlie Hebdo. I don’t see it as an image of provocation either,” she said.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Khan said the image was “very respectful” of Muhammad’s teachings. She said: “As all Muslims will tell you, the prophet was a man who was regularly ridiculed, mocked, insulted, humiliated and the prophet always used to respond with mercy and compassion and forgiveness.”
She added that the cartoon implied that it was the terrorists who were insulting the prophet rather than the magazine. She accepted that many Muslims would find any depiction of the prophet insulting, but pointed out that there were few edicts in Islam against such depictions.



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more on this story














Iranian newspaper shut down for showing solidarity with Charlie Hebdo

Mardom-e-Emrooz also has licence suspended over front page depicting George Clooney and words ‘I am Charlie, too’



Published: 19 Jan 2015




Iranian newspaper shut down for showing solidarity with Charlie Hebdo












42% of French people say cartoons that upset Muslims shouldn’t be published

Survey, in wake of Charlie Hebdo attack, also finds 68% feel citizens should be forbidden from returning to France after fighting with Islamist groups abroad



Published: 18 Jan 2015




42% of French people say cartoons that upset Muslims shouldn’t be published












Turkish PM compares Binyamin Netanyahu to Paris attackers

Ahmet Davutoğlu accuses Israeli leader of crimes against humanity and criticises publication of prophet cartoons



Published: 15 Jan 2015




Turkish PM compares Binyamin Netanyahu to Paris attackers












Salman Rushdie on Charlie Hebdo: freedom of speech can only be absolute

Author who faced Iranian death edict over The Satanic Verses expresses anger at vilification of murdered magazine staff



Published: 15 Jan 2015




Salman Rushdie on Charlie Hebdo: freedom of speech can only be absolute














France clamours for Charlie Hebdo as news kiosks sell out




Published: 14 Jan 2015




France clamours for Charlie Hebdo as news kiosks sell out








Charlie Hebdo poster burned in protest as Muslim leaders condemn cover




Published: 14 Jan 2015




Charlie Hebdo poster burned in protest as Muslim leaders condemn cover








Charlie Hebdo: Turkish court orders ban on web pages featuring front cover




Published: 14 Jan 2015




Charlie Hebdo: Turkish court orders ban on web pages featuring front cover








Charlie Hebdo print run raised to 5m as copies in France sell out




Published: 14 Jan 2015




Charlie Hebdo print run raised to 5m as copies in France sell out
















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