Al-Qaeda threatens Charlie Hebdo with another massacre for reprinting Mohammed cartoons

Al-Qaeda has threatened French magazine Charlie Hebdo with a 2015 like attack after it republished the caricature of Prophet Mohammed to mark the start of the trial of 14 people accused of helping the two terrorists who carried out a gun rampage at the offices of the satirical weekly. According to SITE Observatory, Al-Qaeda in its publication One Ummah, to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, warned Charlie Hebdo and French President Emmanuel Macron of the similar massacre for republishing Prophet Mohammed cartoons. 

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On January 7, 2015, brothers Chérif and Said Kouachi stormed Charlie Hebdo’s office in Paris with assault rifles, submachine guns, grenades, and pistols and killed 12 people, including Charb, cartoonist, columnist, and director of publication of Charlie Hebdo. The gunmen identified themselves as belonging to the Islamist group Al-Qaeda. 

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'Same Message'

The terrorist group in its English issue warned the French President Macron for allowing the republication of the cartoon saying that they have the "same message" for him as they had for his predecessor Francois Hollande, who was the Head of the State at the time of the 2015 attack. 

The reprint of the cartoon also drew condemnation from three Muslim states - Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed Macron for refusing to condemn the action of Charlie Hebdo and dubbed it a move to insult and instigate 1.5 billion Muslims of the world. Charlie Hebdo's director Laurent Sourisseau (Riss), who was badly injured during the attack in 2015, told the court that the magazine does not regret publishing the cartoons. 

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