The French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo has unveiled the cover of its first edition since a terrorist attack on its Paris offices.
The paper features an image of a tearful Muhammad holding a “Je Suis Charlie” sign with the caption, “Tout est pardonne” — “All is forgiven.”
The cover’s creator, Rénald Luzier (“Luz”), spoke to reporters about it Tuesday.
” ‘I’m sorry that I’ve drawn him again, but the Mohammed that we’ve drawn’ is, above all, a Mohammed who is crying,” CNN reported.
Luz also opened up to a French culture magazine over the weekend, saying that cartooning has lost its innocence in the wake of the killings.
“When I started drawing, I always thought we were safe, as we were drawing pseudo Mickey Mouse. Now, after the deaths, the shoot outs, the violence, everything has changed,” he told Les Inrockuptibles. “All eyes are on us, we’ve become a symbol, just like our cartoons.”
Luz was uncomfortable with such a designation, saying that Charlie has always stood against symbolism, but is now being made to carry a burden they never sought.
“In the end, the symbolic weight is exactly what Charlie has always worked against: destroying symbols, breaking down taboos, bursting bubbles of fantasy. It’s wonderful that people are giving us their support but it’s going against Charlie’s cartoons.”
Nevertheless, the magazine is going forward with a larger-than-usual print run this week. AFP reports:
“The controversial weekly, which lampoons anyone from the pope to the president, has become the symbol of freedom of expression in the wake of the bloodshed. This week it is preparing a print run of three million copies, compared to its usual 60,000.
“To ease fears in a nation still jittery after its worst attacks in half a century, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced that some 10,000 troops will be deployed to protect sensitive sites.
“He said the unprecedented deployment on home soil was being handled like “a military operation”.
Charlie Hebdo‘s latest hits newsstands Wednesday and reportedly will feature an Arabic-language version.
