PARIS — Adored by many, reviled by some, offensive to most everyone, the French satirical weekly called Charlie Hebdo has long reveled in the arch, if simple, art of provocation. Its pages are filled with vulgar caricatures and caustic humor, lampooning politicians, entertainers and media personalities of all stripes, and the newspaper has found itself a frequent presence at Paris courts, accused on several dozen occasions of defamation or inciting hate.

The world’s religions have also been favorite targets of the paper, this being France, where state-mandated secularism is a sort of religion of its own. The cover page of one recent issue featured a cartoon of three rolls of toilet paper, labeled Bible, Koran and Torah, and the headline: “In the toilet, all the religions.”

But the most recent issue — a special edition titled “Charia Hebdo” that was billed as being “guest edited” by the prophet Muhammad, who appeared in a cartoon on the cover — was received with particular dismay among many French Muslims, who say they have felt increasingly stigmatized under the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy.



In the run-up to the presidential election next year, Mr. Sarkozy has undertaken a series of government initiatives that Muslims have denounced as discriminatory, beginning with a ban on the wearing of the full veil.

These moves are widely viewed to be intended, in part, to help him attract voters from the far-right National Front. Shortly before Charlie Hebdo arrived at newsstands last Wednesday morning — with Muhammad on the cover promising “100 lashes if you don’t die laughing!” — a fire that the police said was deliberate gutted the newspaper’s Paris offices. The newspaper’s Web site was also hacked, displaying images of Mecca and a message in English reading, “No God but Allah.”

No suspects have been identified, but there has been widespread speculation by politicians and commentators that the fire was set by Muslims, angered at the publication of the likeness of the prophet, forbidden under Islam.

In an uncommon show of unanimity, politicians from across the ideological spectrum were up in arms last week, pledging to defend the “freedom of expression” of a publication with which their relations are generally strained. Newspapers, magazines, unions and at least one leftist political party quickly offered to provide work space to Charlie Hebdo, which is now operating out of the offices of the daily Libération.

On Sunday, the antiracism advocacy group S.O.S. Racisme organized a protest in Paris against “religious fundamentalisms,” insisting that democracy requires “the absolute right to blasphemy.”

Despite last week’s impassioned defense of press freedom, politicians and activists also endorse a range of relatively severe restrictions on speech in France. Political figures make regular use of defamation and privacy laws that allow them to bring suit against publications that portray them unfavorably. They frequently win. And while S.O.S. Racisme and similar groups back the right to blaspheme, they also back restrictions on racially charged comments, even if those comments may be true.

In 2006, Charlie Hedbo reprinted cartoons of Muhammad that first appeared in a Danish newspaper, prompting a lawsuit from French Muslim groups, which accused the newspaper of “slander stigmatizing a group of people on the basis of their religion.” The newspaper was acquitted.

Last week, in a shift, those same organizations backed Charlie Hebdo’s right to publish material of its choosing, though they questioned editorial choices that were all but certain to anger and alienate an already vulnerable group.

“I call this provocation,” said Tarik Boudjemaa, 39, a Muslim and the owner of a newsstand in the 18th Arrondissement. “In the name of freedom of expression, they always go after the same people.”

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