[article] Muhammad Cartoon court case begins

mike65

MediaGuardian.co.uk

A demonstration in Pakistan: the original publication of the cartoons by a Danish newspaper caused protests worldwide. Photograph: EPA

A French magazine will today be put on trial under anti-racism laws for publishing the cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad that caused fury across the Muslim world last year.

In February last year, the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo printed a special issue on the Danish cartoons, in which it reprinted the 12 drawings first published in the Nordic daily Jyllands-Posten.

Charlie Hebdo also included its own cartoons which also lampooned other religious figures.

Two French Muslim organisations, the Great Mosque of Paris and the Union of Islamic Organisations of France, are suing Charlie Hebdo for "public insults against a group of people because they belong to a religion".

The trial at a Paris court is very high profile, with a string of public figures expected to testify.

The leader of the French Socialist Party, Francois Hollande, and a centre-right candidate in the country's forthcoming presidential elections, Francois Bayrou, are expected to testify on behalf of Charlie Hebdo.

Already, several publications, such as the left-leaning daily Liberation and Le Nouvel Observateur, have publicly backed the satirical weekly. The latter is currently running an online petition on its website supporting the magazine.

The two French Muslim organisations are suing Charlie Hebdo specifically for printing two of the Danish cartoons, one that represented the prophet wearing a turban with a bomb in it, and another showing Muhammad greeting suicide bombers with the words "stop, we have run out of virgins".

Charlie Hebdo also faces legal action for its own caricature, used on the magazine's cover in February 2006, which showed Muhammad covering his eyes with his hands, saying "It's hard to be loved by idiots", together with the headline "Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists".

"This is an affair about caricatures that incite racism," the head of the Great Mosque of Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, told a press conference last week.

"This is not a trial against freedom of expression or against secularism," added the mosque's lawyer, Francis Szpiner.

The Charlie Hebdo editor-in-chief, Philippe Val, responded in an interview with the news weekly Le Nouvel Observateur yesterday: "One should not confuse criticism of an ideology with racism.

"If we were to be condemned, we would not be able to work on any of the subjects forbidden by religions, such as genetics research.

"We will explain that we are not opposed to believers, as long as their beliefs stay private. Religion should not influence collective affairs."

The case verdict is expected tomorrow

Here's hoping the magazine wins. Its a bad day otherwise.

Mike.

Tom Dunne

What bugs me is the fact that there are many jokes about God, priests, nuns,with the occasional Rabbi thrown in for good measure, and nobody bats an eyelid.

Some of them are in poor taste, but I wouldn't start a protest in O'Connell street and start burning effigies of various newspaper editors.

InFront

That's because there are different attitudes to depiction in Christianity. Those cartoons were printed at a time when the fastest growing religion in the world was/ is paradoxically at its weakest on a global level.

If Iran and Saudi were declaring war on "Christian nations" and Christians worldwide seemed under suspicion and attack, and some magazine printed something this offensive, suggestive not only of Christians but of the core of their faith, I think Christians would want confirmation that it is "not OK" too.