French weekly firebombed after it commits sacrilegious act

A firebomb attack gutted the headquarters of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday after it committed a sacrilegious act of putting an image of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) on its cover. The Paris prosecutor's office told Reuters that two molotov cocktails had been thrown into the magazine's offices.
"The building is still standing. The problem is there's nothing left inside," Stephane Charbonnier, editor of Charlie Hebdo, told Europe 1 radio.
MUSLIM LEADERS CALL FOR CALM The main representative body of the Muslim faith in France, the French Muslim Council (CFCM), denounced the attack while also faulting the satirical publication. "The CFCM deplores the deeply mocking tone of the newspaper towards Islam and its prophet, but reaffirms with force its total opposition to any act or form of violence," it said in statement.
About 5 million Muslims live in France, a country of about 65 million people. Tareq Oubrou, head of the Association of Imams of France, also condemned the attack. "This is an inadmissible act," he told French TV station tele.
"Freedom is very important. It is nonetheless important to underline the sensitivity of the situation we face today. "I call on Muslims to treat this lucidly and not succumb to what they consider as provocation's regarding their religion ... I personally call on Muslims to keep an open mind and not take this too seriously."
In Dubai, the world's largest international Muslim body condemned Charlie Hebdo for publishing the image and a "highly provocative" editorial, but urged restraint among Muslims. "The publication of the Prophet Muhammad's cartoon, once again substantiated the OIC's concern of the alarming rise of Islamophobia in Europe," Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, said in a statement. Charlie Hebdo has got into deep water on similar issues in the past. Former editor Philippe Val was pursued in the French courts on charges of racial injury after its publication of three of the Danish cartoons in 2006. He was acquitted.