When Charlie Hebdo came to Scotland

Witnesses to the massacre said that the killers – Cherif and Said Kouachi – shouted in Arabic "We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad" and "God is Great" as they shot dead cartoonists and journalists.

Survivors of the atrocity included illustrator Laurent "Riss" Sourisseau who was shot in the shoulder.

Riss is publishing director of Charlie Hebdo and now owns 70 per cent of its shares.

He visited Scotland with Robert McLiam Wilson, an award winning novelist originally from Northern Ireland who lives in Paris and pens polemics for the French magazine and other major titles. The pair were accompanied by their close protection bodyguard from the French police.

Charlie Hebdo wanted to capture the mood of Scotland post-Brexit so Riss and Wilson spent five days travelling and interviewing people including politicians, immigrants, a priest, fishermen, publicans and drinkers in the Gallowgate area of Glasgow, among others.

In the East Neuk of Fife they met fishermen in Pittenweem and visited Kingsbarns Distillery before travelling to the west Fife town of Ballingry to meet Willie Clarke, Britain’s last elected Communist who retired recently after serving 43 years as a councillor.

Other politicians interviewed included Patrick Harvie MSP, co-convenor of the Scottish Greens, Jackson Carlaw MSP, deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Tommy Sheppard, the SNP Member of Parliament for Edinburgh East, and Frank McAveety of the Scottish Labour Party, leader of Glasgow City Council.

The special report is due to be published on Wednesday. Francophone writer Wilson is best known for his highly acclaimed novel, Ripley Bogle.

The book won the Rooney Prize, the Hughes Prize, and the Irish Book Award, while his second novel, Eureka Street, was adapted for television by the BBC after winning the Belfast Arts Award for Literature.

Wilson told the Sunday Herald: “A country that largely voted to remain in the EU may now be compelled to leave it. What does this mean both practically and emotionally? Will broad political allegiances now change markedly? Will people stick to the same views they held during the independence referendum or last year’s general election? Is this a political or constitutional crisis or a political and constitutional opportunity?

"Scotland’s situation is a remarkable one. There is confusion and a lack of clear understanding of the situation in most European countries. From the continent, it can be quite hard to see if something is being born or something is dying (or both). One could argue that the Brexit vote was an emotional vote (though it could be claimed that all votes are really emotional votes). The reaction to the result was certainly markedly emotional in character. Continental Europeans want to know the shape of Scotland now and what its possible future might look like. There's good will but much confusion. We want to shed some light on that."

Charlie Hebdo is a left wing weekly publishing cartoons, columns, special reports and jokes, a publication interested in politics, animal rights and environmentalism that’s often been embroiled in controversy due to its irreverent and sardonic take on controversial issues, particularly race and religion.

The magazine often mocks the extreme far right, particularly France's National Front party which is led by Marine le Pen, and religions are also satirised including Catholicism, Judaism and Islam.

The publication first carried cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed in 2006. In November 2011, Charlie Hebdo’s HQ in Paris was firebombed and its website hacked after an edition entitled “Charia Hebdo” was published with the Prophet Muhammed named as “editor-in-chief”.

It ran with the front cover headline, “100 lashes of the whip if you don’t die laughing”, a response to the introduction of Sharia law in Libya and the victory of the Islamist party in Tunisia. The magazine has also taken aim at the veil, forced marriage and the stoning of women accused of adultery.

In September 2012, Charlie Hebdo once again published satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, some of which featured nude caricatures of him, prompting outrage among some Muslims and criticism of its editorial judgement by both the French government and the White House in the US.

On January 7 last year, the magazine’s Paris office was attacked again, this time by the Kouachi brothers, who shot dead cartoonists Charb, Cabu, Honoré, Tignous and Wolinski.

They also murdered economist Bernard Maris, editors Elsa Cayat and Mustapha Ourrad, Michel Renaud, maintenance worker Frédéric Boisseau, and police officers Brinsolaro and Merabet. Eleven people were wounded, four of them seriously.

Following the massacre, supporters of free speech around the world adopted the phrase “Je Suis Charlie”.

Riss was shot once during the incident and from his hospital bed he drew four cartoons for the next issue of Charlie Hebdo released on January 14, one week after the shooting.

Since leaving hospital he's been given 24 hour protection from the French state, with a team of armed police officers guarding him both at work and home.

On the first anniversary of the murder of friends and colleagues this year, Riss wrote an editorial for Charlie Hebdo. He said: “We're often asked: "How can you go on with the magazine after all this?" How? Everything we have been through in the last 23 years is what keeps us going (and raging, campaigning and screwing around). We've never been keener on getting right up the asses of all those who dream of our disappearance, of our silence. Two dumb losers in hoods never stood a chance of destroying or expunging our life's work. Nor erasing the precious extraordinary moments we shared with those we have lost. They won't see the back of Charlie.”