The appeal, entitled "#MockingGod", is aimed at cartoonists and caricaturists from all over the world. The best drawings are to be published in the satirical magazine to mark the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attack.

On 7 January 2015, Islamist terrorists broke into the editorial offices of "Charlie Hebdo" and killed twelve people. The magazine had previously published cartoons of Muhammad.

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"Decapitation is the punishment of blasphemers," read one of the placards carried by protesters.

The cartoons sending up the Prophet Mohammad triggered outrage and unrest among Muslims around the world in 2005 when they were first published by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Earlier this week, Charlie Hebdo - a satirical weekly - revived the cartoons to mark the start of the trial of suspected accomplices in an Islamist militant attack on its Paris office in January 2015. Read more

So says a manifesto denouncing "a new antisemitism marked by Islamist radicalisation."

The manifesto has been signed by over 300 French dignitaries and stars.

The manifesto was drafted by Philippe Val, a former editor at Charlie Hebdo, after a number of Jewish murders.

It says the "fight against this democratic failure … antisemitism" should become a national cause before it's too late. "Before France is no longer France."

The signatories condemn what they called a "quiet ethnic purging" which they say is driven by rising Islamist radicalism, particularly in working-class neighbourhoods.

They accuse the media of remaining silent on the matter.

"Why the silence?" asks the manifesto.

"It is because radical Islam is considered exclusively by some of the elite French parties as an expression of social revolt...

"… because the old antisemitism of the extreme Right is added to the antisemitism of the radical Left, which has found anti-Zionism as their alibi for transforming the executioners of Jews as victims in society."

The manifesto also says "In our recent history [since 2006] 11 Jews have been assassinated - and some tortured - by radical Islamists because they were Jewish."

The dead include three children and a teacher who were shot at a Jewish school in 2012 and four people shot at a Jewish supermarket in Paris in 2015.

A year ago a Jewish woman in her sixties was thrown out of the window of her Paris flat by a neighbour shouting, "Allahu Akbar" (God is great).

The most recent attack took place last month when an 85-year old Jewish woman was stabbed and set alight. The crime is being treated as antisemitic.

Thirty-thousand people marched in her memory.

France's President, Emmanuel Macron, says he is determined to fight antisemitism.

During the past 20 years, France's Jewish community has been leaving the country for Israel.

The manifesto says this is partly because of antisemitism in predominantly immigrant neighbourhoods.

Source

• Euronews
• Haaretz
• The Guardian
• Image: The Commentator

"The leader of the world's Roman Catholics makes his point about inequality and injustice by washing poor people's feet," he said.

He was speaking at the Canon Media awards last Friday.

Pankhurst was one of the judges in the category of Cartoonist of the year.

He said it is not wise to be deliberately offensive. "Charlie Hebdo almost invited retaliation, but fear of disturbing the sensibilities of Muslims needs to be balanced against upholding a free press."

"Freedom of speech is a fundamental value that has to be defended. It goes hand in hand with tolerance and fairness and decency," said Pankhurst.

"Islam in its purest form is a peaceful religion that has contributed much to civilisation."

"We could all do more to recognise that and support and befriend Muslims in our community."

"But if Islam is being perverted and terrible deeds committed in its name, a cartoon Mohammed waving a sword can be a devastating statement, a far more arresting condemnation than any amount of political or editorial huffing."

"If this is the century of jihad, and it is looking depressingly that way, then we must square up to that, just as we did with totalitarianism."

Aboard the papal plane, Jan 15, 2015 during an in-flight press conference Pope Francis spoke on the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack, saying that freedom of expression has limits but no one has the right to kill in the name of God.

"Killing in the name of God is an aberration against God. I think this is the main thing with freedom of religion."

"You can practice with freedom but without imposing or killing."

He said that every person has not just the freedom or right, but also an obligation "to say what he thinks" to build the common good.

"We have the obligation to freely have this liberty, but without offending."

"You cannot offend or make war, kill in the name of your religion, that is in the name of God," the Pope told journalists.

"But if the freedom of expression is used to offend, he said, one can expect a reaction."

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• CNA
• Image: img.rasset.ie

The declaration, proposed by the group Reporters without Borders (RSF), came after French religious leaders last week backed free speech, but stated it had to be exercised responsibly.

The issue comes in the wake of last month's terrorist attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and similar incidents which resulted in 17 fatalities.

The RSF declaration challenges faith groups to pledge unreserved support for free speech or face public pressure to do so, the Tablet reported.

"Nobody can impose his concept of the sacred on others," stated the declaration.

It admitted some people might be offended by free speech, but this cannot justify limiting any opinion, even an irreverent one.

The RSF initiative was supported by a committee of intellectuals who back France's laïcité policy of church-state separation.

President of the French bishops' conference Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseille said the Church does not sign declarations it has not helped draft.

"This declaration seems to suspect religions of being not very active in supporting free speech, if not actually opposed to it," Archbishop Pontier said.

The archbishop said it was regrettable the text was addressed only to religious leaders and not other civil society personalities.

In January, the French bishops sent two of their number to the massive protest in Paris a few days after the shootings.

On the day of the Charlie Hebdo attack, the bishops issued a statement expressing their sorrow.

But in the first issue of Charlie Hebdo after the killings, its editorial said the magazine laughed that the bells of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris had rung in their honour.

"We would like to send a message to Pope Francis, who, too, was ‘Charlie' this week: we only accept the bells of Notre Dame ringing in our honour when it is Femen who make them tinkle," the editorial stated.

Femen is a radical feminist group which had staged a topless protest in Notre Dame Cathedral.

Sources

• The Tablet
• DICI
• Catholic Herald
• Image: NBC News