The pope will punch back, not turn the other cheek

Pope Francis was recently asked about the attack on weekly satire magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris on Jan. 7 that left 20 dead, including the three attackers who were acting on behalf of al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda said the massacre took place because Charlie Hebdo kept printing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, and drawing figures of Muhammad is forbidden in Islam. For the magazine, it was a case of freedom of expression, as it has also been drawing cartoons of the Christian prophet Jesus and the Jewish prophet Moses. It has also drawn the pope.

Charlie Hebdo this week published its first issue since the awful attack, with the cover showing a cartoon of an Arab, supposedly the Prophet Muhammad, holding a sign that reads ?Je suis Charlie? with tears in his eyes. It was a sympathetic caricature, but it was a drawing of the prophet, regardless of the content.

So it created reactions. The reactions had a lower profile compared to the grief after the Paris massacre, but nevertheless they took place.

In Turkey, for example, daily Cumhuriyet printed a selection from Charlie Hebdo without the cover caricature. However, because two of its columnists reprinted small-sized versions of the cover cartoon in their column, the paper has been targeted not only by religious and nationalist groups, but also by the government. Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has said his government would not ?let the Prophet Muhammad be insulted in this country.? (It has to be noted that Davuto?lu?s participation in the protest rally in Paris after the killings prevented further antagonism in Turkey, as well as in Europe.)

On the day when Pope Francis was asked about the controversy, there was a protest against Charlie Hebdo in the Philippines. The question was...