PARIS -- The new edition of Charlie Hebdo went on sale Wednesday morning, with people lining up in Paris to buy the satirical publication.
The front cover, which was revealed Monday, depicts a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad shedding a tear and holding a "Je Suis Charlie". Above the cartoon, the message: "All is forgiven."
Inside, the newspaper unapologetically skewered other religions as well, and bragged that Sunday's turnout of a million people at a march in Paris to condemn terrorism was larger "than for Mass."
Working out of borrowed offices, surviving staff published an unprecedented print run of 3 million copies, the weekly's typical run is 60,000 copies.
Two Relay Newspaper shops in Gare de L'Est sold out of 480 copies in just 15 minutes, while people lined up outside trying to buy a copy.
The queue for #charliehebdo at 6am at Gare de L'Est. pic.twitter.com/FppyZ10Vmw— Tim Chester (@timchester) January 14, 2015
Another newsagent in the capital told Mashable he had received three times the demand for copies than the number he had on sale.
The paper appeared on newsstands one week to the day after the assault by two masked gunmen that killed 12 people, including much of the weekly's editorial staff and two police officers. It was the beginning of three days of terror that saw 17 people killed before the three Islamic extremist attackers were gunned down by security forces.
This man didn't receive any copies of #charliehebdo but there's a hopeful crowd anyway. pic.twitter.com/juJbh76LdZ— Tim Chester (@timchester) January 14, 2015
Before the new edition was even released, one of Egypt's top Islamic authorities had warned Charlie Hebdo against publishing more cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Dar al-Ifta, which is in charge of issuing religious edicts, called the planned cover an "unjustified provocation" for millions of Muslims who respect and love their prophet and warned the cartoon would likely spark a new wave of hatred.
Indeed, criticism and threats immediately appeared on militant websites, with calls for more strikes against the newspaper and anonymous threats from radicals, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based terrorism monitor.
[img src="http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/AP251840135523.jpg" caption="A banner reading: " Stock shortage for Charlie Hebdo" is placed at a newsstand in Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015. " credit="Michel Spingler" alt="Paris"]
Zineb El Rhazoui, a journalist with the weekly, said the cover meant the journalists are forgiving the extremists for the attack.
Renald Luzier, the cartoonist who drew the cover image under the pen name "Luz," said it represents "just a little guy who's crying."
Then he added: "Yes, it is Muhammad."
Speaking at a news conference in which he repeatedly broke down crying, Luzier described weeping after he drew the picture.
"I wrote 'everything is pardoned', and I cried," he said, adding that at that moment the staff understood the drawing would be the cover.
"It is not the cover that the world wanted us to do," he said, tearfully putting his head down on the table at one point as colleagues embraced him in a group hug.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press