The French satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, where 12 cartoonists were killed in a shooting early this year, will no longer publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Its past use of the Muslim prophet’s likeness was a chief motivation in the attack by Al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch.
Editor Laurent Sourisseau, who survived the attack by playing dead, said that the newspaper had made its point in previously publishing such images, according to Deutsche Welle:
“We have drawn Muhammad to defend the principle that one can draw whatever they want. It is a bit strange though: we are expected to exercise a freedom of expression that no one dares to,” Sourisseau told “Stern.”
The editor said that the magazine had done what it set out to do.
“We’ve done our job. We have defended the right to caricature,” Sourisseau said.
“We still believe that we have the right to criticize all religions,” the editor said, adding that he did not want to believe that the magazine “was possessed by Islam.”
(Via Deutsche Welle)