– Cartoon Wars

Muslims sue over France cartoons
BBC

Two French Muslim groups have begun a lawsuit in a Paris court against magazine Charlie Hebdo over cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad.

The groups say the magazine "insulted people on the basis of religion" in a case seen as a test of free speech.

Charlie Hebdo reprinted Danish cartoons that provoked a violent backlash in the Muslim world a year ago.

The newspaper Liberation republished the cartoons on Wednesday in solidarity with the magazine.

But the Union of French Islamic Organizations and the Paris Grand Mosque said Charlie Hebdo's decision to publish the cartoons "was part of a considered plan of provocation aimed against the Islamic community in its most intimate faith".

It was "born out of a simplistic Islamophobia as well as purely commercial interests".

Muslims regard images of the Prophet Mohammed as blasphemous.

Global controversy
The illustrations originally appeared in the best-selling Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005 to accompany an editorial criticizing self-censorship in the Danish media.

One image shows the Prophet Muhammad carrying a lit bomb in the shape of a turban on his head decorated with the Islamic creed.

Over the next few months they were reprinted in a number of French publications and elsewhere in Europe and around the world.

Reaction in the Muslim world built up in January and February of 2006 culminating in sometimes violent protests.

The two-day trial is being seen as a test of the boundaries of free speech and religious sensitivities in France.

In republishing the cartoons, Liberation called the trial "idiotic", adding: "It is not words which wound, or pictures that kill. It is bombs."

A television debate between Charlie Hebdo publisher Philippe Val and Paris Grand Mosque rector Dalil Boubakeur proved an acrimonious affair.

Mr Boubakeur said the cartoons insulted all Muslims by suggesting they were all terrorists.

Mr Val said: "If we can't criticize religion anymore, there will be no women's rights, no birth control and no gay rights."

In October, a Danish court rejected a libel case brought by several Muslim groups against the Jyllands-Posten.

The court in Aarhus said there was not enough reason to believe the cartoons were meant to be insulting or harmful.