Three Million Copies of Charlie Hebdo to Feature Mohammed Cartoons

This week’s three million copies of Charlie Hebdo, the first post-attack issue of the French satirical weekly, will defiantly feature caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, its lawyer said Monday.

The special issue, to come out on Wednesday, will also be offered “in 16 languages” for readers around the world, one of its columnists, Patrick Pelloux, said.

Charlie Hebdo’s lawyer, Richard Malka, told French radio the upcoming publication will “obviously” lampoon Mohammed–among other figures–to show staff will “cede nothing” to extremists seeking to silence them.

The two gunmen who slaughtered 12 people in their attack on Charlie Hebdo’s offices last Wednesday, including five of its top cartoonists and three other staff members, claimed as they left the scene that they had “avenged the Prophet Mohammed”.

{snip}

The original paper printed at 60,000 copies a week, selling 30,000.

With their headquarters still a crime scene, remaining staff are working out of the offices of daily newspaper Liberation with equipment loaned by the Le Monde daily and cash handed out by other French and even foreign media.

{snip}

With the attacks the magazine has become a national symbol of free speech. Huge crowds, including 1.5 million in Paris in the biggest rally in French history, took to the streets Sunday, many carrying signs saying: “Je suis Charlie”.

“Everything is forgiven.” “I am Charlie.”