By Soeren Kern
November 3, 2011 at 5:00 am
November 3, 2011 at 5:00 am
The Paris offices of the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo were destroyed in an arson attack after it "invited" the Islamic Prophet Mohammed to be its "guest editor."
The November 2 firebombing attack took place just hours before the magazine's current issue -- titled "Sharia Hebdo" (a reference to Islamic law), and featuring a cartoon of Mohammed on its cover -- hit the news stands.
The attack marks a serious escalation of a long-running Islamic war on free speech and expression in Europe. In recent years, Muslim immigrants and their multicultural supporters in Europe have used a combination of lawsuits, verbal and physical harassment and even murder to silence debate about the rise of Islam there.
The editors of Charlie Hebdo magazine said Mohammed was named as "guest editor" to "honor" the recent electoral success of the Islamist Ennahda party in Tunisia and the announcement by the new leaders of Libya that Islamic Sharia law would be the basis for the country's legal system.
The front cover of the offending issue portrayed a cartoonish man sporting a turban, white robe and beard and smiling broadly while saying "100 lashes if you don't die laughing." Read the rest on:
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