“tout est pardonné”
According to the AFP news agency, the gunmen shouted: “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad”. This is absolutely ridiculous and an insult to the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him). Our Prophet does not require avenging. Forgiveness and compassion defined our Prophet Muhammad, not violence and revenge. These extremists show complete disregard for the compassion and care displayed by the Prophet throughout his life. Islamic sources include many instances where the Prophet (peace be upon him) had the opportunity to take revenge upon those who wronged him, but refrained from doing so.
— Qari Muhammad Asim – Senior Imam at Makkah Masjid, Leeds
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French media are reporting on what they say is the cover of the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French weekly that was the target of a deadly attack last week. It features an image apparently of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad shedding a tear and holding a sign that reads: “Je Suis Charlie” [“I Am Charlie”]. The cover reads “Tout Est Pardonné” [“All Is Forgiven”].
The new cover was released two days before the magazine’s latest issue hits the newsstands. And it comes less than a week after some of Charlie Hebdo‘s top cartoonists were killed in a deadly attack on the magazine’s offices.
Some Muslims regard any depiction — even positive ones — of their prophet as blasphemous. The two gunmen who killed 12 people at the magazine’s offices last Wednesday claimed they had “avenged the Prophet Mohammed” as they left the scene….
Charlie Pelloux, one of the magazine’s columnists, said that this week’s issue will be available in 16 languages, according to Agence France-Presse.
NPR is not posting images of Charlie Hebdo’s most controversial cartoons at this time. For an explanation of why, please click here.
— Krishnadev Calamur – editor, National Public Radio
BLT 
The earlier written verses of the Quran were more accommodating than the later ones. A large percentage of Muslims follow a doctrine of abrogation which abrogates the earlier verses in favor of the later ones. The Hadith has plenty of violent verses, so I would say it is a pretty mixed bag.
Jay,
Here’s an online source for the quotation from Bukhari that the Imam quotes:
http://sunnah.com/bukhari/78/141
This single source itself is a mixed bag. There’s much on forgiveness, but there’s much on Jihad. And even the statements on jihad are not always violent but are quite qualified, equating Jihad to the performance of the Haji.
And in this single mixed bag alone, there is much, interestingly, on “abrogation,” even abrogation of what is written and what is spoken and what had been taught earlier.
http://sunnah.com/search/?q=abrogation
Isn’t the point of the Imam not so much the argument over the various and varied sources
but rather the contrast between the killers in the name of Allah and the example and demonstration of the exemplary life?
As I am sure you well know the numerous verses of the Quran and Hadith that are clearly violent toward those against Islam, so I don’t even want to start quoting them here. For me, as I reject the violent verses of the Hebrew Bible, so I need to see Muslims reject the violent verses of the Quran and the Hadith. From my experience, as long as a there is no real commitment to reject these verses, at times of severe conflict or persecution violence is very likely to occur. In many ways much of the Muslim world has been violated by western government actions over the last 50 years. As long as there is a divinely ordained right to use violence, it will certainly happen. I say this in regards to Muslims, Jews, or Christians.
Yes, I agree with you Jay. And, I myself have to say this:
that I need to see Muslims and observant Jews and Christians and Hindus and Buddhists and atheists reject violence because of inherent sexism and racism not only in religious scriptures and in dogmatic texts of “science” but also in cartoons targeting “others.” And I need to see cartoonists rejecting violence and sexism and racism too.
I do like how expert on world religions (and on atheism too), Karen Armstrong, answers this question with regard to all:
Are more atheists and more religious Jews and more Christians than Muslims renouncing the sexist, racist, violent statements against others? Are more secular satirical cartoonists than Muslims?
How many Muslims will count for us?
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/muslims-in-france-protest-against-extremism/
http://www.m-a-t.org/
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/tam/categories/C167
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/muslim_voices_against_extremism_and_terrorism_part_i_fatwas/
http://www.press.org/events/american-muslims-united-against-violent-extremism
http://imamsonline.com/blog/2015/01/paris-shootings-condemned-forgiveness-not-vengeance-defined-the-prophet/
http://time.com/3635561/malala-condemns-the-killing-of-school-children-in-peshawar/
https://midnightwatcher.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/indonesia-imam-attacked-delivering-antiviolence-sermon-during-friday-prayers/
http://www.worldbulletin.net/turkey/153128/turkish-magazine-gives-the-answer-charlie-hebdo-deserves