What Is Charlie Hebdo and Why Was the Magazine Targeted? - Wall Street Journal

The Paris offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo were attacked on Wednesday  by armed gunmen, who killed 12. The magazine, part of a French tradition of biting satire, has been the source of constant controversy throughout its history. A primer on the magazine and its past.

What is Charlie Hebdo? - Charlie Hebdo is a satirical magazine, published every Wednesday, that was founded in 1969, though it stopped publishing between 1981 and 1992. Known best for its illustrations and provocative imagery, the magazine aims to mock all forms of authority, from politicians to religion to the military. Its ideological roots are left-wing and atheist—with religion in all its forms a target. In its Dec. 20 edition, the newspaper published a cartoon of the Virgin Mary giving birth to a pig-faced Jesus.

What has Charlie Hebdo done to anger Muslims? -  In 2006, the paper reprinted images of the Prophet Muhammad that had appeared in a Danish magazine a year before. The next year, it published a picture of Muhammad crying, with the tagline “It’s hard to be loved by idiots.” Many Muslims view visual depictions of Muhammad as provocative or even blasphemous. The Grand Mosque of Paris and the Union of Islamic Organizations of France, among other similar religious bodies, filed slander charges at the time. A French court cleared the paper.  Read More on Charlie Hebdo

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