Charlie Hebdo is at it Again

The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is no stranger to controversy. It has got itself in trouble in the past by printing cartoons of Mohammed (including some of a naked prophet), and last year published a comic book chronicling the life of Mohammed. Its publisher was prosecuted (and acquitted) for some of those Motoons, and the magazine’s editorial offices were firebombed.

Charlie Hebdo’s latest cover illustration takes a poke at the current mayhem in Egypt:

The main text reads:

“Killing in Egypt — The Koran is s**t — It doesn’t stop bullets”

There is a further pun on the word balles (bullets), which is roughly equivalent to the British slang term “bollocks”. Americans would probably use “bull***t” in the same circumstances.

And all this on the first day of Ramadan! What calumny!

Needless to say, massive steaming piles of opprobrium are being heaped on Charlie Hebdo by the usual suspects. According to ANSAmed:

Satirical Charlie Hebdo’s Provocative Egypt Cover Criticised

By Arab websites, anti-Islam vignette a ‘sales stunt’

(ANSAmed) — Tunis, July 10 — The latest cover of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo has drawn negative reactions from the Arab world, while Arab media call for the public to keep a cool head on the matter.

Islam&Info, for example, wrote that there is no need to “waste time on this bunch of foolishness”. In the eyes of the site Afriquinfos, in attacking Islam Charlie Hebdo has found “a chicken with golden eggs” enabling it to triple its sales.

Afriquinfos opted to publish Charlie Hebdo’s front page with the anti-Koran vignette. The French-language site said that the stunt had worked like a charm, as it had on September 19, when the weekly published another vignette considered blasphemous by many Muslims.

Many also happened to note that it was published in the very hours in which the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began.

Hat tip: Insubria.

2 thoughts on “Charlie Hebdo is at it Again

  1. Hi all,

    I just wanted to say that there’s no “further pun on the word balles”. I’m french and there’s no other meaning for the word “bullet”, here

    Bye

  2. Pingback: Charlie Hebdo hat es wieder getan: “Killing in Egypt”! | kopten ohne grenzen

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