The next issue of the France’s Charlie Hebdo will depict a caricature of the prophet Muhammad holding a sign that says “Je Suis Charlie.”
It’s a bold stand from the irreverent, satirical paper, likely guaranteeing a spot among the most iconic newspaper covers of all time. It’s widely believed that it was Charlie Hebdo’s willingness to depict of Islam’s sacred prophet, believed blasphemous to many Muslims, that prompted Al Qaeda-linked terrorists to storm its offices, murdering eight members of its staff, as well as four others.
The attack prompted a worldwide outcry of support for the magazine, which carries the torch for a long French history of mocking supposed authority. Around the world, people adopted the phrase “Je suis Charlie,” which became the most popular trending topic in French history.
Not everyone at Charlie Hebdo got sentimental from the support: One cartoonist, Bernard Holtrop, scoffed at suddenly receiving support from political figures like Queen Elizabeth and Vladimir Putin. “We vomit on all these people who suddenly say they are our friends,” Holtrop told a Dutch paper.
The magazine did declare after the attacks that it would not be cowed, and would indeed publish on schedule Wednesday—this time 1 million copies, rather than the usual run of 60,000.
Update 5:32pm CT: Yahoo is reporting that the magazine’s run this week has been bumped up to 3 million copies in 16 different languages.
Photo via Gerry Lauzon/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
