French Magazine Sued over Cartoons

Paris: Two Muslim organizations have launched legal proceedings against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, accusing it of inciting racial hatred after it published provocative cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. The allegations concern cartoons that caricatured the Prophet, published at a time, on September 19, when violent anti-Western protests were flaring across the Muslim world in response to an US anti-Islam amateur film. The Algerian Democratic Union for Peace and Progress (RDAP) and the Organization of Arab Union are claiming a total of ‚¬780,000 in costs and damages. According to the complainants’, the drawings were “damaging to the honour and reputation of the Prophet Muhammad and the Muslim community”.