France's Charlie Hebdo Holds God Cartoon Contest To Mark 10 Years Of Attack

Ten years after a deadly attack on its office that shocked France, Charlie Hebdo magazine is marking the anniversary with a cartoon contest mocking God, with Sunday the deadline for submissions.

The satirical weekly was targeted by two Islamic extremists on January 7, 2014, who gunned down eight members of staff including some of the country's most famous cartoonists inside its premises in central Paris.

The attackers -- two brothers who were later killed by police -- targeted Charlie Hebdo after its decision to publish caricatures lampooning the Prophet Mohammed, Islam's most revered figure.

In typically provocative style, the staunchly atheist magazine has invited cartoonists to submit the "funniest and meanest" drawings mocking God possible ahead of the anniversary.

Launching it last month with a deadline of December 15, it addressed a message to "everyone who is fed up with living in a society directed by God and religion. Everyone who is fed up with the so-called good and evil. Everyone who is fed up with religious leaders dictating our lives."

There was no immediate confirmation of how many had been sent for publication.

Free Speech Defence

The attack on Charlie Hebdo fuelled an outpouring of sympathy and wave of "Je Suis Charlie" ("I Am Charlie") solidarity with its editorial team and famed cartoonists Cabu, Charb, Honore, Tignous and Wolinski who lost their lives.

The massacre was part of a slew of Islamist-inspired plots that claimed hundreds of lives in France and western Europe over the following years.

Ahead of the 10th anniversary, the magazine has published a book featuring work by its deceased contributors and the day of the attack is likely to see public tributes. 

Since its founding in 1970, Charlie Hebdo has regularly tested the boundaries of French hate speech laws, which offer protection to minorities and outlaw inciting violence but allow criticism and mockery of religion.

Free-speech defenders in France see the ability to criticise and ridicule religion as a key victory in a centuries-long battle within the country to escape the influence of the Catholic Church.

But critics argue Charlie Hebdo has been gratuitously offensive to believers and even Islamophobic, pointing to Prophet Mohammed caricatures that appear to associate Islam with terrorism.

It regularly publishes cartoons lampooning other religions, including Christianity.

A depiction of the Virgin Mary in August suffering from the mpox virus incited two legal complaints from Catholic organisations. 

On the first anniversary of the attack, the weekly published a front-page cartoon of a bearded God-like figure carrying a Kalashnikov rifle under the title "One year after, the killer is still on the run".

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)