I'm not too terribly interested in what you have to say about Charlie's work to be honest. How you feel about it doesn't change one very important fact that has gotten lost in the "I hate" bandwagon that started rolling after his death.
He had a right to say it.
No one has a right to kill.
Very few of us will ever be caught in a situation where we are forced to kill someone. It happens I get it but its rare and it never happens as a result of what someone else said. Words hurt, I'm not denying that but you NEVER have to kill someone because they said something mean, hateful or racist.
Every time an incident like this pops up the first thing the masses want to do is assign blame to one side or the other. The terrorists claimed it was Charlie's fault. They had to kill him because he was disrespectful to their religion and way of life. Others around the world want to paint Charlie as an innocent victim and vilify not just the terrorists but everyone who follows the same religion they do.
Fuck you both.
Free speech carries with it a tremendous responsibility. What we say has impact on everyone who reads it. People in Charlie's line of work are very aware of this fact. Charlie knew exactly what kinds of repercussions his voice would carry and accepted those consequences freely and willingly. If he didn't know what might happen well, he was just an idiot.
But he DID NOT deserve to die.
Rascism plain and simple is hatred towards another group of people for arbitrary standards that don't apply to them as a whole. For instance, claiming that all muslims are terrorists (which I've seen many times this last week) or that all black people are on food stamps because they are too lazy to work. These are just two examples of racism and they were front and center in Charlie's work. But here's the thing and I can't say this enough. He had a RIGHT TO SAY IT. And no matter how bad, how vile, how disgusting and how racist Charlie's work may have been (I don't really know I haven't seen any of it and I intend to keep it that way) it is far more racist to assume that you have a right to kill him.
The Ultimate Racism to me is believing you have a right to kill to another human for any reason other than they are in the act of trying to kill you first. Think about it. You are telling the world that this group of people is so inferior to you, so far beneath you that their lives have no meaning unless you grant it. Until that time those people are disposable and you can do anything you want to them, even kill them for any reason that you deem appropriate. It doesn't GET any more racist than that.
Freedom of Speech isn't Freedom from Hate. We all wish it was but it isn't. It never was and it never will be. We are human beings, we hate, its all part of the gig and we aren't going to get past that any time soon if ever at all. People are going to say things that will piss you off, make you cry and generally cause you to loose faith in humanity. Want to know something else? The same right that let's them run their mouths and spew hatred at the world gives you the right to speak your mind about it. Yeah. You have the exact same freedom to say kind, accepting things that spread love and tolerance. You have the right to speak your mind IN DIRECT OPPOSITION TO HATE. And don't fall for this bullshit about "no one will hear you." Someone will and if you only ever reach one person in your lifetime that's enough. Because that person will reach out to others and if they only reach one person then that person will reach out to another and then on and on.
The bottom line is this: We need to stop challenging hate with bullets, bombs or our fists. We need to stop letting those who hate us silence us with violence. We need to stop responding to hate with more hate.