3m copies of this Charlie Hebdo cover have been printed

Warning: the image in this article may offend some readers

An “international” edition of Charlie Hebdo is set to be published on Wednesday and will be ostentatiously blasphemous and ungrateful – biting back at extremist Islam but also at many of its new-found friends.

The magazine, appearing for the first time since the terrorist massacre last week, will lampoon radical Islam and publish new cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed.

It will also mock many of the politicians – in France, and around the world – who have championed the stricken magazine as a symbol of democracy and freedom.

In other words, the grieving Charlie Hebdo will remain as scurrilous, anti-religious, anarcho-leftist and offensive as ever – a perpetual student magazine, produced by people much too old to be students. It will refuse to be turned into the sanctified “Charlie” of the “Je suis Charlie” campaign that has encircled the globe in the past six days.

The new cover of the magazine features a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed holding up a 'Je suis Charlie' ('I am Charlie') sign under the words: 'Tout est pardonne' ('All is forgiven')

At the same time, the magazine will try to use its sudden fame to repair its perennially disastrous finances. Instead of its normal print run of 40,000, the magazine will publish three million copies in 16 languages, including Arabic.

The magazine’s lawyer and spokesman, Richard Malka, said yesterday: “We are not giving an inch. The spirit of ‘Je suis Charlie’ also implies a right to blaspheme.”

Charlie Hebdo, founded in 1970, has always been fiercely anti-religious, anti-establishment, anti-capitalist and anti-good taste. Although usually described as “satirical”, its humour ranges from gentle mockery to scurrilous aggression.

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