Charlie Hebdo receives death threats over Tariq Ramadan front page

From the Telegraph

French police are investigating death threats against satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo over a cartoon of Oxford scholar Tariq Ramadan, who is facing rape allegations.

The provocative magazine, which suffered a deadly jihadist attack in January 2015 after publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, depicted Ramadan its edition last Wednesday in an explicit pose, with the caption: “I am the sixth pillar of Islam.”

Mr Ramadan, who has Swiss nationality and is seen as a controversial conservative Islamic intellectual in France, has been accused of rape by two women after the Harvey Weinstein scandal sparked a wave of sexual abuse accusations around the planet.

The 55-year-old has vigorously denied the accusations as a “campaign of lies launched by my adversaries”. It’s all a Zionist plot, don’t you know?

“Rape,” reads the caption on Charlie Hebdo’s cover. “The defence of Tariq Ramadan.”

Laurent “Riss” Sourisseau, the magazine’s editor, said the threats and hate mail had “never really stopped” after the January 2015 jihadist attack in which 12 people were gunned down at its offices. “Sometimes there are peaks when we receive explicit death threats on social media – this has been the case once again,” he told Europe 1 radio. “It’s always difficult to know if these are serious threats or not, but as a principle, we take them seriously and press charges.” However, he suggested the climate had worsened. “Calls to murder have become commonplace,” he said.

In an editorial, Laurent Joffrin, said those sending death threats had missed the point. “An attack against Islam? In fact, against Ramadan, mocked as a Tartuffe with a big d*** who contradicts the very principles he is supposed to teach and which are not, by the way, targeted by Charlie. But subtlety is not bigots’ strong point.”

The copy of the cover picture is from Nice Matin</a>; the Telegraph decided not to show it.