Hundreds of people have gathered in western Sydney to protest against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which published an image of the Islamic prophet Mohammed after jihadists murdered 12 staff members.

Police said about 800 people attended the rally, organised by controversial Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir in the suburb of Lakemba.

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Police said the rally “concluded peacefully” but 14 people were removed from the area for “breaching the peace”.

Some of those were handing out material deemed to be objectionable, and police said some were removed for their own safety.

Many of the protesters held placards pledging their love for Mohammed, who was depicted on the magazine cover holding a sign displaying the words “Je suis Charlie”.

The French slogan became a popular message of solidarity, widely shared on social media and quoted at demonstrations around the world after terrorists attacked the magazine’s Paris offices earlier this month.

One speaker at the Lakemba rally, Sufyan Badar, took aim at what he called the arrogant West.

“They force their world view onto us: ‘We are the arrogant West and you Muslims have to accept our world view, you have to accept our freedoms … to insult your prophet’,” he told the crowd.

“But we rejected freedom yesterday, we reject freedom today and we reject your freedom tomorrow.”

The “survivors’ issue” of the magazine, which had a print run of 5 million, sold out within minutes at newsagencies across France and was the subject of strong demand in Australia.

It caused outrage in some parts of the world, including in the west African country of Niger, where at least 10 people were killed and dozens of churches were burned in response.