Charlie Hebdo, a satirical French magazine, recently became much more famous than it ever was. Early this month it came out with a provocative issue whose cover presented a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad and the headline “100 lashes if you don’t die laughing.” Shortly afterwards the offices of the magazine were firebombed and its website got hacked, reportedly by a group of Turkish Muslims.

Blasphemy in Islam is any irreverent behavior toward holy personages, religious artifacts, customs, and beliefs that Muslims revere. The Quran and the hadith do not speak about blasphemy.

Jurists created the offence, and they made it part of Sharia.
Where Sharia pertains, the penalties for blasphemy can include fines, imprisonment, flogging, amputation, hanging, or beheading. Muslim clerics may call for the punishment of an alleged blasphemer by issuing a fatwā