Muslim media condemns latest Charlie Hebdo cartoon

Many Muslim newspapers across the globe have condemned the “survivors” edition of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo- featuring a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad.

"Charlie Hebdo continues its provocation," a headline on the front page of Jordan's establishment daily Al-Dustour read.

The Algerian daily Echourouk, Habib Rashdin criticised the French government for helping to fund the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo, insisting this "violates all red lines, and amounts to an open crusade against Muslims".

"It has become every Muslim's right today to file a lawsuit against the country's ambassadors over charges of 'insult and contempt for religion'," Rashdin wrote.

The front page of another Algerian paper, the anti-Islamist Ennahar, features a large picture of a sign saying "Nous sommes tous…Mohamed" ("We are all Muhammad"), reference to the recent worldwide declarations of "Je suis Charlie".

Iran's TV news channel IRINN described the cartoon as "an act of provocation", while the country’s English-language international channel Press TV warned that the cartoon "will stir up more hatred".

Turkish newspaper Yeni Akit launched a strong attack against Charlie Hebdo and the West, under the headline “Ignominy continues”.

"Despite the perilous events, the arrogant magazine Charlie Hebdo and the Western media, under the thumb of Zionist powers, carry on their cowardly attacks against Muslims and the Islamic world," the paper said.

"I look forward to a French law that protects people's sanctities and beliefs from attack and ridicule," Idris al-Driss wrote in the Saudi daily Al-Watan.

"Freedom of expression should end at and not cross the limits of offending others over their colour, race or religion. Insulting religions should be legally treated as racism."

In the Lebanese daily Al-Anwar, Raouf Shahouri accused some Western countries of double standards in penalising expressions of anti-Semitism but "seeing no crime in attacking the prophet of Muslims and hurting the feelings of more than a billion Muslims around the world".

However, in an op-ed piece in the New York Times, Turkish writer Mustafa Akyol called on the Muslim world to ease its concept of blasphemy.

"Rage is a sign of nothing but immaturity," he wrote. "The power of any faith comes not from its coercion of critics and dissenters. It comes from the moral integrity and the intellectual strength of its believers."