Timeline: French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is no stranger to controversy or violence

French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the target of Wednesday’s deadly attack that left at least 12 people dead and several injured, is no stranger to controversy — or violence.

The weekly magazine has mercilessly lampooned high-profile figures and religions, including French politicians, Jews, Muslims and the pope, since it began in 1970. It closed in 1981 for financial reasons and resumed publication in 1992.

But it was its satire about Islam that sparked the biggest response — and most serious threats. 

More from GlobalPost:  Inside Charlie Hebdo: The Paris attack targeted paper that mocked fundamentalists

Editor Stephane Charbonnier, who was killed in the shooting carried out by masked gunmen shouting "God is great" in Arabic, had previously defended the magazine’s provocative style, saying it will “shock those who will want to be shocked.”

"I don't feel as though I'm killing someone with a pen," Charbonnier, who lived under police protection following death threats, was quoted as saying in September 2012.

His remarks came nearly a year after the magazine’s offices in Paris were destroyed in a petrol bomb attack.

"I'm not putting lives at risk. When activists need a pretext to justify their violence, they always find it."

This amateur footage posted by the Guardian purportedly shows the deadly attack. 

Here’s a timeline of previous attacks, legal action and controversy involving the magazine: 

February 2007 – French Muslim organizations Grand Mosque of Paris and the Union of Islamic Organizations of France took former Charlie Hebdo publisher Philippe Val to court after the magazine republished cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad that first appeared in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005 and sparked deadly protests.

The Muslim groups also sued the magazine over its own caricature of Muhammad, which ran on the cover with the text “it’s hard being loved by idiots.” A Paris court threw out the case. 

November 2011 – The offices of Charlie Hebdo were destroyed in a firebomb attack after the magazine named the Prophet Muhammad as guest editor for the week’s edition, which it said would be temporarily renamed “Charia Hebdo,” in reference to Islam's traditional Sharia law. 

The cover showed a caricature of the prophet saying “100 lashes of the whip if you don’t die laughing.” Hackers attacked the magazine's website and staff received death threats. Charlie Hebdo remained defiant, reprinting the offending image in a special supplement in which it defended its right to “poke fun.”

AFP/Getty Images

September 2012 – French schools, embassies, consulates and cultural centers in about 20 countries were temporarily shuttered after Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of a naked Muhammad a few days after attacks on US embassies over the controversial US-produced amateur film "Innocence of Muslims.”

An 18-year-old man was also charged after making threats on Facebook against the editors of the magazine.

January 2015 – Gunmen storm the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, killing at least 12 people and injuring several others. Four cartoonists, including Charbonnier, and two police officers are among the dead. President Francois Hollande said the shooting was a terrorist attack and an “act of exceptional barbarity.”

AFP/Getty Images