Radical Islamist cleric Anjem Choudary has described the latest cartoon on the cover of Charlie Hebdo’s magazine as “act of war”.
Anjem says “ridiculing Mohamed is attacking his personality” and takes the latest magazine cover as being “extremely serious”.
The latest cover of Charlie Hebdo since the Paris attacks shows the prophet shedding a tear and holding up a sign reading “Je suis Charlie” in sympathy with the dead journalists. The headline says “all is forgiven”.
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3 million copies of the latest edition are due to be printed in 16 languages as demand worldwide for the latest edition of the magazine are at an all time high
The Independent reports:
Immediately after the the Charlie Hebdo massacre last week, Mr Choudary wrote an open letter entitled “People know the consequences” where he argued that “Muslims do not believe in the concept of freedom of expression” because they submit to the commands of Allah alone.
The radical preacher founded the banned al-Muhajiroun network, which was classified as a terrorist organisation by the British government and has been linked to extremists including Michael Adebolajo, who murdered Lee Rigby.
The 47-year-old, who lectures in Sharia law, was arrested in September as part of an investigation into Islamist terrorism but later bailed.
Mr Choudary described Charlie Hebdo’s cover as a “blatant provocation” and claimed insulting Islam and Muslims is “part of the war that is taking place”.
People should be “sensible and sensitive to the emotions and the feelings of the Muslims”, he added, accusing authorities of refusing to “nip it in the bud”.
