The survivors' edition of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo has been published exactly a week after the editor and cartoonists were gunned down in the magazine's Paris office.
The edition created much curiosity and contempt even before its release, given that it defiantly features Prophet Mohammed on the cover, holding a poster that reads – 'Je Suis Charlie'.
The header above the prophet's cartoon reads 'All is Forgiven', a message which was construed by media to show the Prophet forgiving the cartoonists for caricaturing him in their past editions, which is believed to have led to the terror attack.
However, the paper's editor-in-chief Gérard Biard explained what the message meant. "It is we who forgive, not Muhammad," he reportedly told France Info.
Cartoonist Renald "Luz" Luzier, who made the front cover, depicted Mohammed as a "man in tears".
"It's not the front page the world wanted us to do. But it's the front page we wanted. It's not the front page a terrorist would have wanted us to do — there are no terrorists on there," Luzier said at a press conference on Tuesday.
"There's just a guy who's crying. It's Mohammed. I am sorry, we drew him again. But this Mohammed is, above everything else, a man in tears," a weeping Luzier said.
While the front cover has generated much curiosity, the edition also features other bold cartoons, including those made by the cartoonists who were killed in the terror attack.
The edition comprises cartoons showing a woman in a burqa in a lewd form, a French nun discussing oral sex, and even has a take on the Pope.
One of the cartoons is by slain cartoonist Bernard "Tignous" Verlhac depicting a funny conversation between two jihadists, USA Today reported.
The weekly, which had a circulation of 60,000, will now be printed in three million copies worldwide in 6 languages.
