No he is not scared. And there is no fear of violent reprisal. Drawing Muhammad no longer interests Rénald Luzier, Charlie Hebdo‘s cartoonist who drew a cartoon of an ‘apologetic’ prophet holding a ‘Je suis Charlie’ sign with the caption ‘All is forgiven’ for the front cover of the January 14 ‘survivors’ issue of the magazine.
“I will no longer draw the figure of Muhammad. It no longer interests me. I’ve got tired of it, just as I got tired of drawing Sarkozy. I’m not going to spend my life drawing them,” Luz told Les Inrockuptibles.
Is this a victory for intimidation through violence? “The terrorists did not win. They will have won if the whole of France continues to be scared,” Luz, who survived the January 7 terrorist attack on the magazine’s Paris office as he was late to work, added.
U-T San Diego cartoonist Steve Breen called Luz’s move a “wise decision” against the backdrop of some critics framing the “to draw or not to draw” debate as an either/or proposition. “You can be both provocative and prudent as a cartoonist. They are not not mutually exclusive,” he said.
Charlie Hebdo was recently awarded the annual Freedom of Expression Courage Award from PEN America, an organization devoted to defending journalists and promoting free speech.
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