‘Anyone offended by cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo could take the matter to the courts’ said French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. But he also underlined freedom of speech in France.
The cover of Charlie Hebdo shows a Muslim man in a wheelchair being pushed by an Orthodox Jew under the title “Intouchables 2”, referring to a French film about a poor black man who helps an aristocratic quadriplegic.
However he said a request to hold a demonstration in Paris against the controversial US-made anti-Islam film which has sparked furious protests across the Muslim world would be refused “because there is no reason to allow conflicts that do not concern France into our country” he said.
Charlie Hebdo is no stranger to controversy over its handling of issues relating to Islam.
Last year it published an edition “guest-edited” by the Prophet Mohammed that it called Sharia Hebdo. The magazine’s offices in Paris were subsequently fire-bombed.