The offices of a satirical magazine in France were set on fire Wednesday, the magazine’s editor said, according to reports.
The Paris offices of the Charlie Hebdo publication were attacked on the day that it was to publish an issue that appeared to make fun of Islam’s Shariah, according to the BBC. It also said it named the Prophet Mohammed as the “editor-in-chief” of the next issue.
Stephane Charbonnier, the editor-in-chief, said, “If we can poke fun at everything in France, if we can talk about anything in France apart from Islam or the consequences of Islamism, that is annoying.”
Charbonnier said that the attack was not the work of Muslims in France but was carried out by “idiot extremists,” according to the broadcaster.
Describing the attack, Charbonnier told Reuters that the assailants broke a window and “a Molotov cocktail was thrown inside,” adding there is “nothing left inside” the offices.
French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the nation backs the magazine. “The freedom of the press is a sacred freedom for French people. Everything will be done to find the perpetrators of this attack,” he told CNN.
