CAIRO, Jan 14 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt's top religious institution, al-Azhar described new drawings depicting Islam's prophet Muhammad which satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo published on Wednesday as "sick imagination" and "hateful futility".

The newspaper, whose office was attacked by Islamist gunmen last week in an incident which left 12 killed, has published fresh drawings which mock Islam's prophet in its first issue since the attack.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Azhar called on all Muslims to "ignore" the drawings.

"The status of the prophet of mercy and humanity is too great and high to be undermined by such unruly drawings …" the statement read.

Azhar called on the world's "wise and free" to take a stand against "all that threatens international peace."

Charlie Hebdo's first issue since last week's deadly attack sold out within minutes at newspaper stands throughout France, Reuters reported. The weekly paper is printing five million copies this week, as opposed to its normal 60,000 print run.

Egypt's Grand Mufti had warned Charlie Hebdo against publishing Wednesday's issue, predicting it would "cause a new wave of hatred in French and Western society in general."

Charlie Hebdo raised much controversy in 2011 after it showed offensive drawings of Prophet Muhammed.