My colleague, Sean Lee, posted this on Facebook. I cite with his permission: "
As far as the freedom of expression goes, I’m pretty American in that I tend toward the absolute, with the sole exception of incitement to violence. Which is why I’m horrified by the brutal violence carried out against the employees of Charlie Hebdo today. That said, I’m having a hard time with the whole “I’m Charlie” thing, because that magazine was in the habit of publishing crude and racist attacks against Muslims. There are plenty of examples, but here’s one of a front page that takes advantage of a massacre in Egypt to make fun of Muslims. (It reads: “The Quran is shit! It doesn’t stop bullets!”) For this reason, although I strongly oppose violence against the press and fully support the right to say whatever you want, I cannot say that I’m in solidarity with Charlie Hebdo."
