Iran Press/ Europe: In an editorial this week accompanying the offensive caricatures, the paper claimed the drawings "belong to history, and history cannot be rewritten nor erased".
The decision to republish the Islamophobic cartoons seen as a renewed provocation by a publication that has long courted controversy with its satirical attacks on religion.
The caricatures re-published this week were first printed in 2006 by the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten, setting off sometimes violent protests by some Muslims who found the depictions offensive.
The Prophet Mohammad is deeply revered by Muslims and any kind of visual depiction is forbidden. The caricatures were perceived as linking him with terrorism.
Charlie Hebdo, infamous for its irreverence and accused by critics of racism, regularly caricature religious leaders from various faiths and republished them soon afterward.
The paper's Paris offices were firebombed in 2011 and its editorial leadership placed under police protection, which remains in place to this day.
211
