The executive director of a satirical French weekly newspaper called Charlie Hebdo has defended his decision to reprint the caricatures. The special issue includes all 12 cartoons first run by Denmark's Jyllands-Posten last September, including one depicting the Prophet Mohammad () with a bomb-shaped turban.

It came out after a lawsuit by five Muslim organisations, aimed at stopping publication, was rejected on a technicality.

Executive director Philippe Val said: "After September 11 and the Madrid and London attacks, did we see Arabs on the street demonstrating, humiliated because some murderers were committing horrible crimes in the name of Muhammad? No we did not... We cannot let religious groups set the rules of the game for freedom of expression."

The head of the French Muslim Council has appealed for calm while President Jacques Chirac has called the latest publication "overt provocation." Chirac said: "Anything that can hurt the convictions of another, particularly religious convictions, must be avoided. Freedom of expression must be exercised in a spirit of responsibility."
Other French newspapers had previously reprinted the cartoons but some staff at Charlie Hebdo are now under police protection.

PHOTO CAPTION

Philippe Val, Executive Director of French weekly 'Charlie Hebdo', gestures during an interview with The Associated Press Television News, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2006 at his office in Paris. (AP)

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