Cartoons Inflame Tensions
French Weekly Offends Muslims
PARIS — France stepped up security Wednesday at its embassies across the Muslim world after a French satirical weekly revived a formula that it has already used to capture attention: publishing crude, lewd caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Wednesday’s issue of the provocative satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, whose offices were f irebombed last year, raised concerns that France could face violent protests like the ones targeting the United States over an amateur video produced in California that have left at least 30 people dead.
Chief editor Stephane Charbonnier, who publishes under the pen name “Charb,” has been under police protection for a year.
The drawings, some of which depicted Muhammad naked and in demeaning or pornographic poses, were met with a swift rebuke by the French government, which warned that the magazine could inflame tensions, even as it reiterated France’s free speech protections.
The principle of freedom of expression “must not be infringed,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said, speaking on France Inter radio.
But he added: “Is it pertinent, intelligent, in this context to pour oil on the fire? The answer is no.”
Anger over the film, “Innocence of Muslims,” has sparked violent protests from Asia to Africa, and, in the Lebanese port city of Tyre, tens of thousands of people marched in the streets Wednesday, chanting “Oh, America, you are God’s enemy!”
Worried that France might be targeted, the government ordered its embassies, cultural centers, schools and other official sites to close on Friday — the Muslim holy day — in 20 countries. It also immediately shut down its embassy and the French school in Tunisia, the site of deadly protests at the U.S. Embassy last week.
The French Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning urging French citizens in the Muslim world to exercise “the greatest vigilance,” avoiding public gatherings and “sensitive buildings.”
The controversy could prove tricky for France, which has struggled to integrate its Muslim population, Western Europe’s largest. Many Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad should not be depicted at all — even in a flattering way — because it might encourage idolatry.
Violence provoked by the video, which portrays the prophet as a fraud, womanizer and child molester, has left at least 30 people dead in seven countries. It began with a Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, then quickly spread to Libya, where an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi left the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead.
In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the Obama administration believed the French magazine images “will be deeply offensive to many and have the potential to be inflammatory.”
In a statement, Arab League chief Nabil Elarabi called the cartoons “provocative and disgraceful” and said their publication added complexity to an already inflamed situation in the Muslim world. He said the drawings arose from ignorance of “true Islam.”