(Reuters) - French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad on Wednesday, a move criticised by the French authorities which sent riot police to protect the magazine's offices.

Issues of the magazine hit newsstands with a front cover showing an Orthodox Jew pushing a turbaned figure in a wheelchair with several caricatures of the Prophet on its inside pages, including some of him naked.

The front page cartoon had the wheelchair-bound figure saying "You mustn't mock" under the headline "Untouchable 2", a reference to a hugely popular French movie about a paralysed rich white man and his black assistant.

The publication came amid widespread outrage over a short film, made with private funds in the United States, that mocks the Prophet and has ignited days of sometimes deadly protests in the Arab world, Africa, Asia and some Western countries.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius criticised the move as a provocation and said he had ordered security beefed up at French diplomatic offices in the Muslim world.

Charlie Hebdo's Paris offices were fire bombed last November after it published a mocking caricature of Mohammad. In 2005, Danish cartoons of the Prophet sparked a wave of violent protests across the Muslim world that killed at least 50 people.

Many Muslims consider any representation of Allah or the Prophet Mohammad offensive.

"Is it relevant and intelligent in this environment to add fuel to the fire? The answer is no," Fabius told France Info radio. "I'm very worried... and when I saw this I immediately issued instructions for special security precautions to be taken in all the countries where it could be a problem."

The government has called for restraint over the cartoons, restating the principles of free speech in France and urging those shocked by the images to take action through the courts.

Muslim leaders in France, which has Europe's largest Muslim population, have appealed for calm.

As outrage over the anti-Muslim film continues to fuel violence and protests across the Islamic world, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the authorities had rejected a request to hold a march against the film in Paris.

"There is no reason for us to allow conflicts that do not concern France to enter our country," Ayrault told RTL radio.

Social media had circulated calls for a protest on Saturday against the film, after police arrested about 150 people who tried to take part in an unauthorised protest near the U.S. Embassy in Paris last week.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/09/19/uk-protests-france-idUKBRE88I0BS20120919

some men just want to watch the world burn

[QUOTE="_BlueDuck_"]

I think of it in the same way people look at the issue of women who are sexually harassed for wearing suggestive/revealing clothing. Yes, on one hand, I think parading infront of a bunch of known rapists (or to be a bit more realistic, walking home in a bad neighbourhood alone at night) half-naked isn't a smart or good idea. But at the end of the day, the clothing choices of a woman shouldn't cause people to become sexual predators. The real problem isn't the expression of the woman (with her choice of clothing), but rather the people who react violently to it.

Same things apply to this situation.

Personally, I wonder. If this is the floodgates opening for common, open ridicule of Mohammad (say it becomes just as common as ridicule of Jesus), would everyone eventually calm down? Become desensitized to it? I can see offended communities every few years decide to get offended and start so protests, but if the offense is constant, will people really spend the rest of their lives outraged over simple, foreign cartoons or films that really have no effect on their lives?

[/QUOTE]LOL at your post. Victim-blaming makes me sick.