France to Close Embassies Over Cartoons

Provocation much? After a French paper published offensive caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad Wednesday, France has ordered its embassies, cultural centers, schools and other official sites to close on Friday in 20 countries. Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly, printed the Muslim prophet in pornographic poses, a move which was decried by the French government as pouring “oil on the fire.” In preemptive response to possible backlash, France immediately closed its embassy and school in Tunisia, where deadly protests raged in front of the American embassy last week. “Muhammad isn’t sacred to me,” Charlie Hebdo’s editor told the Associated Press. “I don’t blame Muslims for not laughing at our drawings. I live under French law. I don’t live under Quranic law.”