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Martyn Turner: ‘Charlie Hebdo fought extremism with laughter, satire and free
speech’

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To this particular and peculiar brand of Islamania, Charlie Hebdo
committed the greatest crime. They fought extremism with laughter,
satire and free speech. When I am in France, Charlie Hebdo is my weekly
of choice. It is far livelier than Canard Enchaîné and far less
intimidating than Sine Hebdo (itself a breakaway from Charlie Hebdo).
In France they take satire very seriously. They are devoutly
anti-clerical in the broadest sense and have been for a century or so.
The fight for the freedom of the press was fought against the church

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Charlie and the other magazines see it as their mission in life to
exploit the boundaries of taste and freedom as much as they can. So
when Islam came into this culture it was treated by the satirists in
exactly the same way they had been treating other religions for
decades. When you add to this a large dollop of the French cartoonists’