Influential Muslims Condemn Latest Charlie Hebdo Cover

AFP PHOTO / JOEL SAGET
AFP PHOTO / JOEL SAGET
Mary Chastain

A number of prominent imams and clerics have spoken out against the newest cover of Charlie Hebdo, which shows a crying Mohammed with a sign that said “Je Suis Charlie.”

Hate preacher Anjem Choudary called it an “act of war.” Lesser known self-proclaimed teachers of Islam used social media to condemn the cover. These names may not be familiar, but they have between 3,000 and 36,000 followers on Twitter. They are followed by many of the Twitter accounts that Breitbart News regularly publishes to expose the insanity of radical Islamists.

Faisal Al-Qahtani is a teacher and a current graduate student in Educational Islam. His bio does not state where he lives or attends school.

“It is not in the favor of the French government to allow the newspaper to publish cartoons of Mohammed. France violates the right to respect religions. Do not be angry with the Muslim when the Prophet is angry.”

Abdulrahman Kharraz is a jihadist Twitter staple with over 30,000 followers. He remains semi-anonymous online, however, not stating his occupation on his Twitter bio.

“Between victory and betrayal and recklessness and discipline and a lesson it has the atmosphere of September 11! #CharlieHebdo”

Wael Merza is a finance expert; his cover photo shows him on CNBC. He also has over 17,000 followers on Twitter and resides in Saudi Arabia.

“Islam is not terrorism and freedom of expression does not allow a mockery of prophets. #Charlie Hebdo / #CharlieHebdo is a mockery of the Prophet of Mercy, Mohammed.”

Abdulrazzaq Alsaleh has over 3,000 followers while only following over 200. He does not name his occupation in his bio, but the majority of his tweets concern marriage according to Islam. His tweets on Charlie Hebdo received many retweets.

“Many of us condemn some Western countries of double standards regarding the prevention of criticism of Jews and the Holocaust and to allow criticism of religions and their symbols. The reason is the law. There are laws criminalizing criticism of Jews and the Holocaust, while they have no law criminalizing criticism of religions and their symbols and to change the situation we must press authorities to enact a law to punish those who mock other religions.”

Two gunmen associated with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) slaughtered twelve people in Paris, France, at the Charlie Hebdo headquarters. They targeted the satirical newspaper because the cartoonists published cartoons of Mohammed. After the massacre, publications around the world proclaimed solidarity with Charlie Hebdo but refused to publish the cartoon or blurred out the images. The same publications and networks refused to publish the recent cartoon.

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