Top Muslim institution slams Charlie Hebdo for Muhammad cartoons reprint

Egypt’s highest Muslim authority Al-Azhar condemns French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s decision to reprint cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, as the trial opened over the subsequent 2015 terror attack on its Paris office.

“The insistence on the criminal act to republish these offensive cartoons embeds hate speech further and inflames the emotions of faithful followers of religions,” Al-Azhar’s Observatory for Combating Extremism says on its Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/AzharObserverEn/posts/667900143817450

Charlie Hebdo, whose taboo-breaking style makes it a beacon of free speech for many but a lightning rod of racial insensitivity for others, marked the start of Wednesday’s trial by republishing the controversial cartoons that had angered Muslims globally.

Al-Azhar, also considered the foremost religious institution for Sunni Muslims, says the contentious decision to reprint the caricatures is “an unjustified provocation of the emotions of nearly two billion Muslims around the world.”

— AFP