Charlie Hebdo magazine releases first cover since Paris attacks

Charlie Hebdo has raised a defiant middle finger to the terrorists who killed 130 people in Paris last week.

The Parisian magazine known for its cutting satirical cartoons and being subjected to a terrorist attack last January, has released its first cover since Friday’s devastating violence.

It reads: “They have the weapons. Fuck them. We have the champagne!”

The magazine is no stranger to terrorism after its offices were targeted in January. Eleven people were killed in the attack, including five cartoonists and four editorial staff members.

In the wake of last week’s violence, Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Joann Star posted a message to Instagram.

“Friends from the whole world,” the post reads, “thank you for #prayforParis, but we don’t need more religion! Our faith goes to music! Kisses! Life! Champagne and joy! #Parisisaboutlife.”

The paper’s managing editor, Riss, writes in today’s editorial: “Blood and tears, prophesied Churchill. That’s where we are.

"Without realising it, the Parisians of 2015 have sort of become the Londoners of 1940, determined not to yield, neither to fear nor to resignation, whatever catches them off guard.”

He calls for renewed debate on Islam, which, he writes, “for the past 20 years has become a battleground where radicals want to exterminate non-believers and subdue moderates by force”.

Riss adds: “Avoiding the pitfall of division should not make us renounce the right to criticise religion on the pretext that its exercise is sometimes irritating.

“Among all the basic freedoms that make up our lives, it is also this freedom that the killers wanted to eliminate this Friday evening.”