REPORT: French magazine publishes comic book biography on the life of Prophet Mohammad

A satirical magazine has published a comic book biography of Mohammad's life, but its publisher maintains the aim is "not to ridicule the prophet".                   

The weekly magazine, Charlie Hebdo, published the images on Wednesday, and had recently published other caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that sparked violent protests in the Muslim world.              

The magazine's publisher, Stephane Charbonnier, known as Charb, defended the comic book and its drawings from the weekly's offices on the northeast edge of Paris amid a cluster of housing projects.                              

"The purpose is that it doesn't create any more problems and that we can talk about Islam in France as we talk about all the other subjects," he said.         

"Islam is the second religion in the country in terms of churchgoers and in fact nobody knows anything about Mohammad, nobody knows anything about this religion," he added.            

The small-circulation weekly often draws attention for ridiculing sensitivity around the Prophet Mohammad.           

"When we use the image of the prophet in caricatures it is not to ridicule the prophet or Mohammad. It doesn't make any sense. It is to ridicule those who use his image," he said.               

Last November the magazine's front-page, was subtitled "Sharia Hebdo," a reference to Islamic law, and showed caricatures of radical Muslims.                              

The newspaper's offices were destroyed in a firebomb attack just hours before the edition hit newsstands.                          

In 2006, Charlie Hebdo printed reprints of caricatures carried by a Danish newspaper in 2005 that stoked anger across the Islamic world. Many European papers reprinted the drawings in the name of media freedom.             

Charlie Hebdo has also faced legal challenges.                   

The weekly was acquitted in 2008 by a Paris appeals court of "publicly abusing a group of people because of their religion" following a complaint by Muslim associations.


AP-APTN