Anger, calls for calm over new cartoons

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Muslim clerics in the Middle East who denounced last week's attack on Charlie Hebdo criticised the French satirical weekly yesterday for publishing, On the front of its "survivor's edition", new cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in its first issue after the killings.

While mainstream Muslim leaders around the world have strongly condemned the attack on the newspaper, many said its decision to print more cartoons was an unnecessary provocation and sign of disrespect that would create a new backlash.

Such cartoons "fuel feelings of hatred and resentment among people" and publishing them "shows contempt" for Muslim feelings, said the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestinian lands, Mohammed Hussein, in a statement.

Algeria's independent Arab language daily Echorouk responded with a front page cartoon of its own, showing a man carrying a "Je suis Charlie" placard next to a military tank crushing placards from Palestine, Mali, Gaza, Iraq and Syria. Above, the headline reads: "We are all Mohammad".

In Turkey, Cumhuriyet, a staunchly secular opposition newspaper, printed excerpts of Charlie Hebdo, one of five international editions of the satirical newspaper. Cumhuriyet dedicated four of its pages to Charlie Hebdo articles and cartoons. It printed a small, black-and-white version of the cover in one of its columns, but did not use the image in the special section itself, after "many consultations," its editor in chief Utku Cakirozer said on Twitter.

Police had cordoned off the street where Cumhuriyet is located in Istanbul due to security concerns. At its Ankara offices, protesters hung banners on a nearby wall that read: "The Charlie provocation continues."

Police had stopped trucks carrying the newspaper from the printing press to ensure it did not contain the image, Milliyet newspaper reported. Insulting the Prophet (PBUH) is punishable with a prison term under a clause in the Turkish penal code that bars disrespect of religious values.

Also, a Turkish court yesterday ordered a block on websites featuring the controversial front cover of the first issue of Charlie Hebdo. The court in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, responding to a petition brought by a single lawyer, ordered the block on websites displaying the cover, the state Anatolia news agency reported.

In Iran, a leading conservative cleric, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, said the publication of new satirical images "amounts to declaring war on all Muslims".

Egypt's Al Azhar, a thousand-year-old seat of Islamic learning that has referred to the Paris attack as a criminal act, called on Muslims yesterday to ignore the magazine's cartoons, labelling them "hateful frivolity".

Many people on the streets in the Middle East said it was time to move on. "The cartoons have no meaning, they should not affect us. We as Muslims are bigger and stronger than some cartoon. We should not pay attention, and if we react we should react with word for word and cartoon for cartoon," said Samir Mahmoud, a retired engineer in Cairo.

Emad Awad, a Christian in Cairo, said he understood the anger of his Muslim neighbours but hoped there would be no more unrest. "I reject completely that pictures of the Prophet be published anywhere, but they've made their decision to do it yet again, to show their freedoms aren't changed," he said.

"Now that they've made their point, I really hope this is the last time they do this. I don't think it will lead to more violence, but they missed an opportunity to leave the subject in the past and move forward." The newspaper's defenders said the cover balanced a determination to demonstrate that it remains committed to its satirical mission and free speech, with an appropriately mournful tone and a peaceful message.

Saudi cleric Iyad Ameen Madani, Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, denounced the new cartoon as "insolence, ignorance and foolishness". "Freedom of speech must not become a hate-speech and it is not an offence to the others. No sane person, regardless of doctrine, religion or faith, accepts his beliefs being ridiculed," he said on a visit to Iraq.

Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement blasted Charlie Hebdo's new cartoon as "very offensive", warning it will lead to more "terrorism and extremism". "What the French magazine did again is very offensive to the feelings of more than 1.5 billion Muslims across the world, and to all those who follow monotheistic religions," said Hezbollah in a statement.

"It is an act that contributes directly to supporting terrorism, extremism and fundamentalists," the Shia movement added. The Hezbollah statement comes five days after chief Hassan Nasrallah said Sunni jihadists have caused more offence to Muslims than any book, cartoon or film.