The Vatican newspaper has criticised French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo for depicting God as a Kalashnikov-carrying killer, saying it was “woeful” and disrespectful to true believers of all faiths. And I can also see that we did not learn our lesson from January 7 on November 13, during the second wave of Paris shootings.
Advertisement
In addition to the 11 killed and 11 wounded inside magazine’s offices, the attackers slew a French National Police officer responding to the massacre.
“This episode isn’t something new because, behind the deceitful flag of an uncompromising secularism, the French magazine once again forgets what religious leaders of different beliefs have been repeating for a long time to reject violence in the name of religion”, writes the paper, which cited the pontiff directly to make its point.
Copies of the latest edition of French weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo displayed at a kiosk in Nice, France, today.
Charlie Hebdo has gained notoriety for its satirical treatment of political and religious figures, including the prophet Muhammed.
On Wednesday, January 6, it published a typically provocative special edition featuring a gun-toting God, sparking protests from the Vatican.
The Vatican daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano accused Charlie Hebdo of looking to “manipulate” faith.
A further five people lost their lives in co-ordinated attacks during a siege at a Jewish supermarket.
But while millions of people rushed to buy the first edition after the attack, circulation of the controversial publication has slowed to about 100,000 copies a week and there were no crowds trying to buy the anniversary edition.
Cartoons from artists who died in the attack are featured inside the magazine, along with an editorial by cartoonist Laurent Sourisseau, pen name “Riss”, who survived the storming of the office.
“It is the idea of God itself that we, at Charlie, contest”.
Advertisement
The attack, claimed by Al-Qaeda’s branch in the Arabian Peninsula, was not the first on the publication, which was firebombed in 2011. So we wanted to widen our vision of things. “They aren’t going to see Charlie die, it is Charlie in that is going to see them die”, he added.
