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Post-Attack Edition Of 'Charlie Hebdo' Sells Out In France

Jean Paul Bierlein reads the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo outside a newsstand in Nice, southeastern France, on Wednesday.
Lionel Cironneau
/
AP
Jean Paul Bierlein reads the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo outside a newsstand in Nice, southeastern France, on Wednesday.

The first post-attack edition of Charlie Hebdo has sold out in France, just hours after it was released.

France 24 reports that people lined up in front of newsstands as they opened. The network adds:

"Even before dawn, most French kiosks had sold out of the much-anticipated issue – despite a record print run of three million copies from the usual 60,000 – but people still lined up in the hope of getting their hands on a spare copy. On Wednesday, the magazine announced it would make five million copies available, including translations into five languages.

"The core of the magazine's staff perished last Wednesday when militants Islamists stormed its central Paris offices and killed a total of 12 people, including some of France's finest cartoonists."

On Tuesday, the magazine said it would print 3 million copies of the magazine. That number was bumped to 5 million on Wednesday.

As we reported, the surviving staff of the magazine decided to go on with its publication schedule. On Wednesday, and as a symbol of defiance, they delivered a magazine with a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad on its cover.

Remember, it was their depiction of the prophet that led to threats of attacks and today Al-Qaida in Yemen said they had ordered the attack on Charlie Hebdo because of their disrespect for the prophet.

NBC News reports that some Muslims have expressed concern over the magazine's new cover. The network reports:

"A spokeswoman for the [Iran's] foreign minister condemned the attack on Charlie Hebdo, but added that the magazine's new cover 'insults Islam and also causes extremism between religions.' On Tuesday, an influential Muslim institution in Egypt warned the magazine against publishing, saying it unnecessarily provoked the feelings of '1.5 billion Muslims worldwide.'"

We have not yet seen a copy of the magazine. Once we do, we'll update this post with a bit of what's inside.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.
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