French satirical magazine's new cartoons of M
French satirical magazine's new cartoons of MAFP Photo

New satirical cartoons of Mohammed in a French magazine on Wednesday show its cover with an Orthodox Jew pushing the prophet, while in another cartoon Mohammed is shown in the nude, with his back side aimed at a film director.

The cartoon of the wheelchair is entitled “The Intouchables" and refers to an award-winning French film about a poor black man who becomes the caregiver for an aristocratic millionaire quadriplegic and becomes his best friend. He, of course, sees his charge in every state of dress and undress.

The Charlie Hedbo magazine rejected suggestions not to publish the cartoons, which are likely to inflame Muslim rage that already has left more than 30 people dead in violent riots and terrorist attacks over an anti-Islam film posted on the Internet.

The trailer of the satirical amateurish film “Innocence of Muslims" has received nearly 11 million clicks. It contains several immodest scenes that preclude its being posted on Arutz Sheva.

Muslim rage for material that mocks Islam and the prophet Mohammed has been escalating for years since a Danish newspaper depicted Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.  Subsequently, Dutch legislator Geert Wilders posted a short movie called “Fitna”, “ which warns the world of radical Islam.

Charlie Hedbo’s offices were firebombed last year after it published an edition called “Sharia Hebdo.”

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault stopped short of asking the magazine not to publish the latest cartoons but expressed his “disapproval of all excesses.” ''We are in a country where freedom of expression is guaranteed, including the freedom to caricature,'' he said on a French radio network.

''If people really feel offended in their beliefs and think there has been an infringement of the law - and we are in a state where laws must be totally respected - they can go to court,'' Ayrault said.

French Muslim leaders appealed for calm, and French government officials are planning to stage a protest over the posting of the "Innocence of Muslims" film.

French police arrested dozens of protesters in an illegal demonstration last Saturday against the movie.