Charlie Hebdo Insults Holy Prophet in New Edition, Al-Azhar: They’re Stirring up Hatred
Local Editor
French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday published its first edition since gunmen killed 12 people in an attack on its offices, with a cartoon of the Holy Prophet Mohammed [PBUH]on the cover.
The first issue since the attack has stirred Muslim anger in some countries.
Al-Azhar in Cairo, one of the most prestigious center of learning, warned that Charlie Hebdo's cartoons "stir up hatred" and "do not serve the peaceful coexistence between peoples."
Parallel, Egypt's state-backed Islamic authority Dar al-Ifta denounced "an unjustified provocation against the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims."
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday the country was now engaged in a "war on terrorism", but stressed that Muslims would always have a home in France.
Muslim groups in France have urged their communities - which have already been targeted in dozens of incidents - to "stay calm and avoid emotive reactions" to the cartoon.
Valls called in a speech Tuesday for the country to pull together after the attack, arguing that "France is at war against terrorism, "jihadism", radicalism... (not) Islam and Muslims".
He said France's intelligence capabilities and anti-terrorism laws would have to be strengthened and "clear failings" addressed.
Questions have risen over how supermarket killer Amedy Coulibaly and the Charlie Hebdo gunmen, Said and Cherif Kouachi - who were known to French intelligence had been on a US terror watch list "for years" - had slipped through the cracks.
The shootings have sent shockwaves through Europe and beyond, and France has deployed armed police to guard synagogues and Jewish schools and called up 10,000 troops to guard against other attacks
European Union counter-terrorism chief Gilles de Kerchove warned that jails had become "massive incubators" of radicalization and there was no way to fully rule out such attacks.
Similarly, Former head of British Security Service [MI5] Jonathan Evans has warmed that the cartoon would definitely provoke fresh terrorist attacks.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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