French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was firebombed early Wednesday morning after it it published its weekly issue that portrayed the Prophet Mohamed as a “guest editor” and also had a cartoon inflammatory to Islam on the back cover. According to the magazine's publisher Charb, police reported a fire around 5 AM after a Molotov cocktail was thrown threw one of the windows of the office. The magazine's special edition was on its way to the newsstands when the attack occurred. “We can't put out the magazine under these conditions,” he said. “The stocks are burned, smoke is everywhere, the paste-up board is unusable, everything is melted, there's no more electricity.” The magazine's Web site was hacked earlier, but appeared to have been restored by early Wednesday. The magazine said the issue is “honoring” the Arab spring and the celebrating the Islamic victory in the Tunsiain elections recently. The issue will also be full of satiric articles mocking Arab revolutionists. The main slogan of the issue is “100 lashes if you don't die of laughter.” “In order, fittingly to celebrate the Islamist Ennahda's win in Tunisia and the NTC [National Transitional Council] president's promise that Sharia would be the main source of law in Libya, Charlie Hebdo asked Mohamed to be guest editor,” said a statement from the magazine. The magazine, which changed its title for the issue to “Sharia Hebdo,” will feature an editorial “by the Prophet” about Halal drinks and a section for women called “Sharia madame.” The same publication was taken to a Paris court in 2007 by Islamic organizations, who charged it with insulting Islam and publishing offensive pictures of the Prophet. The Paris court threw out a lawsuit brought by two Muslim organizations against Charlie Hebdo for reprinting cartoons of Prophet Mohamed that had appeared in a Danish newspaper, sparking angry protests by Muslims worldwide. BM
