As France prepared to mark the first anniversary of the deadly terror assaults at a Jewish supermarket and the newsroom of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical newspaper aimed a broadside at one of its favorite targets: God, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The cover of the new edition—due on newsstands with a press run of 1 million copies on Wednesday, a day before the grim anniversary—depicts God with a Kalashnikov slung over his back, cloak and beard spattered with blood, under the headline “The killer is still on the run.”
The edition touches on raw nerves in France after Islamist gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people on the streets of Paris in November.
Some say that the militantly atheist newspaper—which became a cause célèbre after two brothers claiming allegiance to al Qaeda gunned down 12 people in revenge for its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad—has gone too far by suggesting all religions have blood on their hands.
“Accusing believers of sympathizing with terrorists is just not acceptable,” said Catholic priest Pierre-Hervé Grosjean. “I marched for Charlie a year ago, and in our churches we all prayed for the people who used to denigrate us and didn’t make us laugh.”
The tension shows how France’s national wounds are deepening after a year bookended by bloodshed. Despite calls for national unity under the slogan “Je Suis Charlie” in the wake of the January attacks, many in France feel divided. Some French Jews are leaving the country, and many French Muslims say they feel a backlash.
The Nov. 13 Paris massacre left the French population with an even heavier sense of general anxiety. The reaction to the string of attacks at a soccer stadium, bars, restaurants and a concert venue across the city was muted in contrast with the spontaneous and defiant gatherings after the Charlie Hebdo attack, which culminated in a march of more than three million people across France.
For two weeks after the Nov. 13 attacks, police banned public gatherings in Paris under state of emergency powers the government refrained from using after the January attacks. Heavily armed police and soldiers still patrol the streets, sometimes equipped with gas masks.