Charlie Hebdo special ‘God’ cover stirs row

French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo published a special edition on Wednesday on the eve of the anniversary of a jihadist attack that wiped out most of its staff, prompting protests from the Vatican over a cover lampooning God.

In typical Charlie Hebdo fashion, the special edition features a bloodstained, bearded God-figure in sandals with a Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder under the headline: “One year on: the killer is still at large.”

The Vatican criticised the cover for failing to “acknowledge or to respect believers’ faith in God, regardless of the religion”.

“Behind the deceptive flag of uncompromising secularism, the weekly is forgetting once more what religious leaders of every faith unceasingly repeat... Using God to justify hatred — is a genuine blasphemy, as Pope Francis has said several times.”

The provocative cover is typical of the fiercely-secular publication whose drawings of the Prophet Mohammed drew the fury of Muslims around the world and inspired the bloody attack on its offices on January 7, 2015.

Eight Charlie staff were gunned down by brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi as well as several others in and around the building. The assault kickstarted three days of terror in the French capital that would eventually leave 17 dead.

The bloodshed stunned a nation that has become a prized target of jihadists and was again plunged into grief in November when 130 people were killed in coordinated attacks around Paris.

The attack on Charlie, as well as a Jewish supermarket and the police, brought millions into the streets in protest and led to much soul-searching over the country’s cherished secularism as well as societal issues such as integration.

“It was unthinkable that in France in the 21st century, journalists would be killed by religion,” cartoonist Riss, who lost the use of his right arm in the attack, wrote in the editorial of the special edition. “We saw France as an island of secularism, where it was possible to tell jokes, draw, laugh, without worrying about dog-ma, fanatics.”