Charlie Hebdo’s late editor’s book to be published

Paris, April 16 (IANS) A book written by the late editor of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, Stephane Charbonnier, who was killed in a terror attack in January, is set to be published, media reported on Thursday.

Charbonnier, also known as Charb, was killed during an attack at the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris on January 7. The two attackers — Cherif and Said Kouachi — killed at least 12 people.

According to publishers, the book entitled ‘An Open Letter to the Fraudsters of Islamophobia who Play into Racists’ Hands’, which upholds the right to ridicule religion, was finished two days before Charb was killed, BBC reported.

It is both a defence of Charlie Hebdo’s editorial stance and an attack on the paper’s detractors.

“The suggestion that you can laugh at everything, except certain aspects of Islam, because Muslims are much more prickly than the rest of the population – what is that, if not discrimination?” Charb wrote.

He condemns this position as “white, left-wing bourgeois intellectual paternalism”.

He argues that the fight against racism is being replaced by a misguided struggle against “Islamophobia”.

Charb had received numerous death threats following Charlie Hebdo’s publication of cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad in 2006.