Charlie Hebdo gets death threats after satirical cartoon against Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan
Ramadan faces rape allegations which he hotly denies
French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo said on Monday it was pressing charges after receiving fresh death threats against staffers over a cartoon of the Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, who faces rape allegations.
The provocative magazine, which suffered a deadly jihadist attack in 2015 after publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, depicted Ramadan with a huge erection in its edition last Wednesday, saying: “I am the sixth pillar of Islam.”
The Swiss academic, an Oxford professor and conservative Islamic intellectual in France, has been accused of rape by two women after the Harvey Weinstein scandal unleashed a wave of sexual abuse accusations worldwide.
Ramadan, 55, has furiously denied the accusations as a “campaign of lies launched by my adversaries”.
“Rape,” reads the caption on Charlie Hebdo’s cover. “The defence of Tariq Ramadan.”
Later on Monday the Paris prosecutor’s office opened a police inquiry into the death threat claim, a judicial source said.