Charlie Hebdo/Islam

The satire of Charlie Hebdo (CH) has often targeted Islam in graphical form, most often involving images of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

2006

The 2006-02-09 issue of CH featured a front page cartoon of a weeping Muhammad saying "C'est dur d'être aimé par des cons" ("it's hard being loved by jerks") under the title "Mahomet débordé par les intégristes" ("Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists"). The issue also reprinted the twelve cartoons of the 2006 Muhammad cartoon riots and added some of their own.

The Grand Mosque, the Muslim World League and the Union of French Islamic Organisations sued. The director of CH, Philippe Val, was charged with having published "racial insults" (French: "injures raciales", often translated as "racism" or "racist cartoons") but was acquitted. (French, English Google translation)

2011

The 2011-11-03 edition was renamed "Charia Hebdo" (a reference to Sharia), with Muhammad listed as the "editor-in-chief". The cover, featuring a cartoon of Muhammad saying: "100 lashes of the whip if you don't die laughing" by Luz (Rénald Luzier), had circulated on social media for a couple of days. On November 2, the day before the issue was to be published, CH's office in the 20th arrondissement was fire-bombed and its website hacked.

2012

In September 2012, the newspaper published a series of satirical cartoons of Muhammad, some of which featured nude caricatures of him.

2015

On 2015-01-07, twelve people (including ten Charlie Hebdo staff) were assassinated in an attack by two Islamist gunners.