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From: Media Watch
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2006 10:18 AM
Subject: France Soir Editor Sacked Over Cartoons; France Soil banned
in Morocco France Soir Editor Sacked Over Cartoons http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2006-02/02/article01.shtml
PARIS, February 2, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) The managing editor of the daily France Soir has been sacked for republishing blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). "We express our regrets to the Muslim community and all people who were shocked by the publication" of the cartoons," Egyptian-born Raymond Lakah, the paper's owner, said in a statement to Agence France-Presse (AFP). He decided to "remove Jacques Lefranc as managing director of the publication as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual." The Paris daily reprinted on Wednesday, February 1, twelve controversial cartoons depicting and ridiculing Prophet Muhammad. It claimed the move was only to illustrate the controversy sparked by their initial publication in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten paper in September. The cartoons included portrayals of a man assumed to be the Prophet wearing a time-bomb shaped turban and showed him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women. The caricatures, which were later reprinted by a Norwegian magazine, triggered an outrage across the Muslim world. Jyllands-Posten has recently said the cartoons "were not in violation of Danish law but have irrefutably offended many Muslims, and for that we apologize." Ban In a related development, Morocco banned all sales of France Soir on its territory. "Wednesday's edition of France Soir was banned from the Moroccan territory because of the publication by the French newspaper of cartoons of Prophet Muhammad on the fallacious pretext of freedom of the press," the Ministry of Communications said in a statement to AFP. It said that the ban was a reaction to "the intentionally offensive character (of the cartoons) to the Prophet and the fact that they were a blatant and gratuitous provocation for the beliefs of Muslims." The reprinting of the insulting cartoons by France Soir, a once successful daily which is now fighting to survive, has drawn condemnation from the sizable Muslim minority in France, the largest in Europe. Leaders of the minority, estimated at some six million, have vowed to sue the daily over the insulting drawings. Related Links
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