Protests rage against Charlie Hebdo cartoon

Protests have been held around the world against controversial images featured in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Protests rage against Charlie Hebdo cartoonProtests rage against Charlie Hebdo cartoon

Protests rage against Charlie Hebdo cartoon

Protests have been held around the world against controversial images featured in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

 

The magazine has again defended its decision to publish cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, citing freedom of speech and religion.

 

It all comes as today's planned rally by Germany's anti-Islamic Pegida group was called off after police received a threat against an organiser.

 

Germany's Patriotic Europeans Against Islamisation, or Pegida, group has staged weekly marches in Dresden since late last year against what it calls the Islamisation of the West.

 

But German police have now banned a planned rally by the movement -- which has attracted 25-thousand supporters at gatherings -- due to fears it could be the target of an attack.

 

Police say the threat came from the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

 

It comes as demonstrations continue in many parts of the world against the publication of a cartoon of Prophet Mohammed on the cover of France's Charlie Hebdo weekly magazine.

 

Protesters in the West African country of Niger took to the streets in violent riots over the depiction.



Angry crowds set fire to at least eight churches in the capital Niamey as well as bars, hotels and businesses under non-Muslim ownership or bearing signs of French companies.



France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius,whose country has defended the Charlie Hebdo cover as freedom of expression, condemned the violence.

 

This protester in Niamey explains why he has taken to the streets.

 

"They offended our Prophet Mohammad. That's why we didn't like this. This is why we Muslims are trying to protest, but the state isn't letting us. That's why we are angry today."

 

Protests against the magazine have also taken place in Pakistan, Sudan, Algeria and Russia.

 

In Pakistan, thousands of people in almost all the major cities chanted slogans against the magazine's printing of cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.

 

Workers from both religious and secular political parties burnt effigies of French president Francois Hollande and cartoonists at the magazine, along with French flags.



More than two thousand people marched in the largest city Karachi, and a group of Christian pastors took part to show solidarity.

 

This protester in Karachi says many Muslims are angered because they consider depictions of Prophet Mohammed forbidden in Islam.

 

"By staging a protest, we're not only fulfilling our religious duty but are drawing attention of the rulers of Muslim Ummah.* We also want to tell the West, Europe and America that, if you disgrace our Prophet, if you make cartoons of him or encourage the cartoon makers, we reserve the right to respond with everything possible."

 

The editor of the satirical Charlie Hebdo says he defends the publication's right to publish controversial religious cartoons, citing freedom of speech and religion.

 

Demand has surged for the magazine's first issue since two militant gunmen burst into its weekly editorial conference and shot dead 12 people.

 

It was the start of three days of violence that shocked France.

 

The latest magazine shows a cartoon of a tearful Prophet Mohammed holding a sign reading "Je suis Charlie," or "I am Charlie," under the words "All is forgiven."

 

Many newspapers and news outlets have chosen not to show the cover.

 

But the magazine's editor, Gerard Biard is critical of media outlets in democratic countries that choose not to show it.

 

"It's a symbol. It's the symbol of freedom of speech, of freedom of religion, of democracy and secularism. It is this symbol that these newspapers refuse to publish. This is what they must understand, When they refuse to publish this cartoon, when they blur it out, when they decline to publish it, they blur our democracy, secularism, freedom of religion, and they insult the citizenship."



Meanwhile, officials say the two brothers who carried out the attacks on the magazine's headquarters in Paris have been buried amid tight security in France.

 

They say the Kouachi brothers have been buried in unmarked graves to avoid the graves becoming a pilgrimage site for like-minded people.

 



 






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