This cover targets extremists Islamic political parties and the president of the NTC (National Transitional Council of Libya).
Short Story:
This cover is the cover of a special issue of the newspaper published on the 2nd November 2011. The title of this special issue was ‘Charia Hebdo’ (which is a pun between the original name of the newspaper 'Charlie Hebdo’ and 'Sharia Hebdo’). This special issue was made as a reaction to the victory of the islamic political party (Ennahda) in Tunisia during legislative elections and also as a reaction to what the president of the NTC (National Transitional Council of Lybia), Mustafa Abdul Jalil, declared during one of his first speeches in Tripoli. He said : “We seek a state of law, prosperity and one where sharia is the main source for legislation, and this requires many things and conditions”. Even if the chairman declared that the law would stayed moderate, Libya was at the time already recognized as one of the most conservative countries in North Africa where selling alcohol was prohibited, and one of the first things Mustafa Abdul Jalil wanted to do was to allow polygamy. The cover and special edition of Charlie Hebdo was created with the cartoonists and editors imagining what it would be like if sharia was really law, in France, for example. The '100 whiplashes’ are a reference to the fact that sharia allows corporal punishments for some crimes.
To learn more:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/09/2011912214219388500.html
http://www.cfr.org/religion/islam-governing-under-sharia/p8034
http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/11/03/how-egypts-muslim-brotherhood-will-win/
