BBC, Paris :French President Francois Hollande has vowed that his country will protect all religions, saying that Muslims are the main victims of fanaticism.Speaking at the Arab World Institute, he said Islam was compatible with democracy and thanked Arabs for their solidarity over terrorism in Paris.Three attacks, including on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket last week, killed 17 people.Funeral ceremonies for five of the victims will be held later.Among them are two of Charlie Hebdo’s best known cartoonists, Bernard Verlhac – known as “Tignous” – and Georges Wolinski.Speaking on Thursday morning, Hollande said that the French were united in the face of terror.”French Muslims have the same rights as all other French,” he said. “We have the obligation to protect them.”The law has to be enforced in a firm way in places of worship like churches, mosques, and synagogues.””Anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic acts have to be condemned and punished.”Hollande said that radical Islam had fed off contradictions, poverty, inequality and conflict, and that “it is Muslims who are the first victims of fanaticism, fundamentalism and intolerance”.On Wednesday he declared Charlie Hebdo magazine “reborn” after a new edition sold out in hours.Millions more copies of the magazine are being printed because of demand. On the cover, the issue shows the Prophet weeping while holding a sign saying “I am Charlie”, and below the headline “All is forgiven” – an image that has angered some Muslims.”I am Charlie” emerged as a message of support for both the magazine and free speech following the attacks that started on 7 January.French President Francois Hollande proclaimed Wednesday that “Charlie Hebdo is alive and will live on,” after the satirical weekly published its first edition since Islamist gunmen attacked its Paris offices and killed 12 people.”You can murder men and women but you can never kill their ideas,” Hollande said as the new edition, which controversially features a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on its cover, sold out across the country.The weekly had long been threatened by a loss of readership but “today it is reborn”, he addedIt will have a print run of five million issues this week, dwarfing the pre-attack circulation of around 60,000.”It’s the culture that the terrorists want to put an end to because it is insolent, because it is disrespectful, because it is free, it’s human,” Hollande said.Those qualities are “the total opposite” of the fundamentalism and fanaticism of last week’s attackers, he added.A total of 17 people were gunned down in three days of jihadist violence in and around Paris last week.French President Francois Hollande proclaimed Wednesday that “Charlie Hebdo is alive and will live on,” after the satirical weekly published its first edition since Islamist gunmen attacked its Paris offices and killed 12 people.”You can murder men and women but you can never kill their ideas,” Hollande said as the new edition, which controversially features a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on its cover, sold out across the country.The weekly had long been threatened by a loss of readership but “today it is reborn”, he addedIt will have a print run of five million issues this week, dwarfing the pre-attack circulation of around 60,000.”It’s the culture that the terrorists want to put an end to because it is insolent, because it is disrespectful, because it is free, it’s human,” Hollande said.Those qualities are “the total opposite” of the fundamentalism and fanaticism of last week’s attackers, he added.A total of 17 people were gunned down in three days of jihadist violence in and around Paris last week.
