(Newswire.net — January 14, 2015) — A week after the tragic death of 12 employees at Charlie Hebdo magazine, a new issue with drawing of the Mohamed in tears saying ‘Je Suis Charlie’ was printed in three million copies. Editors of the satirical French weekly, which usually doesn’t publish more than 60,000 copies, published additional two million copies.
According to an AFP source, a total of 300,000 copies were also sold outside of France, which represents an absolute record for the French press, but there is more: The issue is also selling on eBay, with astronomical prices, and the first ever issue, of November 23, 1970, now goes for up to 200,000 euro.
Meanwhile, thousands of T-shirts, caps, badges and other goods with “Je Suis Charlie” prints are being sold online.
Sellers claim that it is not about profit and that they just want to contribute by helping raise awareness, however, all products have a price tag.
“We have received a couple negative comments as well from a few French citizens who believe the American people are trying to profit from such tragedy, which was never our intent,” Danica Harcourt of Imperfect Circle Apparel company, said.
Another seller, RockWorldEast, reported huge sales of Charlie Hebdo merchandise: at least 1,800 T-shirts sold instead of the usual 300-600.
According to the Flemish-language media outlet DeMorgen over 50 people have tried to register the trademark “Je Suis Charlie,” and the artistic director of the French magazine Stylist, who created the slogan, has tweeted that he “regrets the commercial uses of it.”
Meanwhile, the Muslim organizations reacted by saying that the drawing of the prophet in tears is very sacreligious.
The publication is “an unjustified provocation against the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims,” said Egypt’s Islamic body Dar al-Ifta.
“This edition will result in a new wave of hatred in French and Western society. What the magazine is doing does not serve coexistence and the cultural dialogue Muslims aspire to,” Dar al-Ifta said in a statement, reported AFP.