A week after gunmen killed 12 people at the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo, millions of copies of the magazine’s newest edition have been sold in what French newspaper Le Figaro called “a record in the history of the French press.”
Referred to as the Survivors’ Issue, the first magazine printed since the massacre featured a cover containing another controversial cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. Charlie Hebdo’s offices had previously been fire bombed and received numerous threats for its criticisms of Islam and depictions of the Prophet Mohammed.
The Survivors’ Issue cover sparked significant protests around the world, bringing together hundreds of thousands of Muslims in several major European cities with large Islamic populations. Large protests were seen in Pakistan, Jordan, Algeria, Niger, Mali, Somalia, Senegal and Chechnya.
Several major news outlets in North America decided to not show the controversial cover in print, online or on television. It depicts the Prophet Mohammed tearfully holding a sign reading “Je suis Charlie,” the slogan used by supporters of Charlie Hebdo following last week’s attack. The headline reads, “All is forgiven.”
According to a report by Sky News, Charlie Hebdo usually publishes around 60,000 copies. The magazine’s publisher said it is printing a total of 7-million copies of the Survivors’ Issue. To put this number in perspective, Sid Holt, Chief Executive of the American Society of Magazine Editors told CNNMoney, “Nothing in the United States compares to the Charlie Hebdo print run… The equivalent of going from 60,000 to six million would be as if a magazine in the United States sold 30-million copies – 30 times what People sells on the newsstand every week.”
Charlie Hebdo’s Editor-in-chief Gerard Biard on Sunday placed scorn on U.S. media outlets for refusing to show the cover of the latest issue. In an interview with NBC News’ Chuck Todd, who hosts Meet the Press, Biard said, “This cartoon is not just a little figure. It’s a symbol. It’s the symbol of freedom of speech, of freedom of religion, of democracy and secularism. When they refuse to publish this cartoon, when they blur it out, when they decline to publish it, they blur out democracy.”
As reported in Time magazine, a survey conducted by Le Journal du Dimanche, found 42 percent of French people felt the country should “consider these reactions and avoid publishing these cartoons,” when presented with the following information: “Some Muslims feel attacked or injured by the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.” Time reports 57 percent of those surveyed checked the option: “We should ignore these reactions and continue to publish such cartoons.” The remaining 1 percent checked “no opinion.”
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