Paris:

A Paris court on Thursday sentenced a Pakistani man to 30 years in jail for attempting to murder two people outside the former offices of Charlie Hebdo in 2020 with a meat cleaver.  

When he carried out the attack, 29-year-old Zaheer Mahmood wrongly believed the satirical newspaper was still based in the building, which was targeted by Islamists a decade ago for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

The newspaper had in fact moved in the wake of the attack, which killed 12 people including eight of the paper’s editorial staff.

The killings in 2015 shocked France and triggered a fierce debate about freedom of expression and religion.

Originally from rural Pakistan, Mahmood arrived in France illegally in the summer of 2019.

The court had earlier heard how Mahmood was influenced by radical Pakistani preacher Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who had called for the beheading of blasphemers to “avenge the Prophet”.

Mahmood was convicted of attempted murder and terrorist conspiracy, and handed a ban from ever setting foot on French soil again.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Paris:

Ten years after a deadly attack on its office that shocked France, Charlie Hebdo magazine is marking the anniversary with a cartoon contest mocking God, with Sunday the deadline for submissions.

The satirical weekly was targeted by two Islamic extremists on January 7, 2014, who gunned down eight members of staff including some of the country’s most famous cartoonists inside its premises in central Paris.

The attackers — two brothers who were later killed by police — targeted Charlie Hebdo after its decision to publish caricatures lampooning the Prophet Mohammed, Islam’s most revered figure.

In typically provocative style, the staunchly atheist magazine has invited cartoonists to submit the “funniest and meanest” drawings mocking God possible ahead of the anniversary.

Launching it last month with a deadline of December 15, it addressed a message to “everyone who is fed up with living in a society directed by God and religion. Everyone who is fed up with the so-called good and evil. Everyone who is fed up with religious leaders dictating our lives.”

There was no immediate confirmation of how many had been sent for publication.

Free Speech Defence

The attack on Charlie Hebdo fuelled an outpouring of sympathy and wave of “Je Suis Charlie” (“I Am Charlie”) solidarity with its editorial team and famed cartoonists Cabu, Charb, Honore, Tignous and Wolinski who lost their lives.

The massacre was part of a slew of Islamist-inspired plots that claimed hundreds of lives in France and western Europe over the following years.

Ahead of the 10th anniversary, the magazine has published a book featuring work by its deceased contributors and the day of the attack is likely to see public tributes. 

Since its founding in 1970, Charlie Hebdo has regularly tested the boundaries of French hate speech laws, which offer protection to minorities and outlaw inciting violence but allow criticism and mockery of religion.

Free-speech defenders in France see the ability to criticise and ridicule religion as a key victory in a centuries-long battle within the country to escape the influence of the Catholic Church.

But critics argue Charlie Hebdo has been gratuitously offensive to believers and even Islamophobic, pointing to Prophet Mohammed caricatures that appear to associate Islam with terrorism.

It regularly publishes cartoons lampooning other religions, including Christianity.

A depiction of the Virgin Mary in August suffering from the mpox virus incited two legal complaints from Catholic organisations. 

On the first anniversary of the attack, the weekly published a front-page cartoon of a bearded God-like figure carrying a Kalashnikov rifle under the title “One year after, the killer is still on the run”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Saad al-Awlaki has taken the helm of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) after the death of its former leader, looking to unite the extremist group and change course after a steep decline.

Based in war-torn Yemen’s south, AQAP is considered by Washington as the Sunni Muslim al-Qaeda network’s most dangerous branch. It has claimed numerous high-profile attacks in the U.S. and Europe, including the 2015 assault on Charlie Hebdo magazine in France’s capital that killed 12 people, but these have dropped in recent years.

AQAP announced earlier this month that Awlaki had succeeded Khalid Batarfi, who died after a long illness, according to Yemeni sources close to the group, who requested anonymity.

Assem al-Sabri, an expert on jihadist groups, said the decline in AQAP’s actions was due to internal divisions, “a financial crisis” and fighting against rival Yemeni forces.

Awlaki, a Yemeni national wanted by the U.S., could herald “a major renewal for the organisation”, Sabri said.

‘Powerful ties’

The new leader has good relations with powerful Yemeni tribes — particularly in his home governorate of Shabwa, an AQAP stronghold — that could revitalise the group, a tribal official said.

As the new leader, Awlaki will work to close the group’s ranks, according to Sabri, who said AQAP under his rule may even seek to relaunch attacks in Western countries.

Awlaki, a member of AQAP’s advisory council, has broad support from its religious and military leaders who now look to him to mobilise fighters, Yemeni sources close to the group said.