Press review: Free speech is French casualty in Muslim cartoon row

The editor of a French newspaper has been fired after publishing controversial cartoons featuring the Muslim prophet Muhammad on its front page.

“Yes, we have a right to caricature God,” France Soir optimistically proclaimed on its front page yesterday.

But editor Jacques Lefranc was then swiftly dismissed by France Soir’s Egyptian owner Raymond Lakah for offending Muslims, a move that will add heat to an international row.

“I decided to remove Jacques Lefranc… as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual,” said Lakah.

French newspapers report Islamic groups raised an outcry against France Soir's "provocative" move - France has Europe's largest Muslim community of five million people.

La Stampa, El Periodico, ABC, Dnes, Blick, Die Welt and Berliner Zeitung have also published the set of 12 cartoons in an act of solidarity with Danish newspaper Jyllends Posten.

ABC reports that European companies that have also started to sell t-shirts, jackets, ashtrays, hats and other items with the satiric cartoons on.

Jyllends Posten editor Carsten Juste has given up the fight for free speech after a bitter international row following her publication of the cartoons last September.

“It is with a sigh of the heart that I say this, but they have won. The fear of starting the things we have seen, that they burn our flag on the West Bank, that is horrible,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen 80,000 women took to the streets in protest against the cartoons, burning Danish flags and calling for a boycott of Danish products, according to Die Welt.

El Pais writes that a new British law against inciting racial and religious hatred would have allowed the Posten cartoons.

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