I just wanted to post this here. "Charlie Hebdo, Before the Massacre, 2006" (NYT/Vimeo)

[War Horse]

http://vimeo.com/116362234

I've seen so many people expressing (here and elsewhere) the view that CH were insulting just to be insulting, that they are just a bunch of juveniles and worse. I've found many of their cartoons to be distasteful as well, but I think a lot of us might be missing a bigger picture here.

I hope some French/situated in France/DUers might chime in here: Some of CHs drawings are repulsive to me, taken out of context. I'm not talking about the religious ones, but those that might be perceived as racist, first and foremost. But they are basically trying to reflect the right wing/racism/extremism/ most -isms by taking it to the extreme, are they not? By all means, correct me if I'm wrong here.

[OKNancy]

1. I've posted this a few times already, but I found it edifying

The whole letter is here: http://blogs.mediapart.fr/blog/olivier-tonneau/110115/charlie-hebdo-letter-my-british-friends

SNIP...
Firstly, a few words on Charlie Hebdo, which was often “analyzed” in the British press on the sole basis, apparently, of a few selected cartoons. It might be worth knowing that the main target of Charlie Hebdo was the Front National and the Le Pen family. Next came crooks of all sorts, including bosses and politicians (incidentally, one of the victims of the bombing was an economist who ran a weekly column on the disasters caused by austerity policies in Greece). Finally, Charlie Hebdo was an opponent of all forms of organized religions, in the old-school anarchist sense: Ni Dieu, ni maître! They ridiculed the pope, orthodox Jews and Muslims in equal measure and with the same biting tone.

They took ferocious stances against the bombings of Gaza. Even if their sense of humour was apparently inacceptable to English minds, please take my word for it: it fell well within the French tradition of satire – and after all was only intended for a French audience. It is only by reading or seeing it out of context that some cartoons appear as racist or islamophobic. Charlie Hebdo also continuously denounced the pledge of minorities and campaigned relentlessly for all illegal immigrants to be given permanent right of stay. I hope this helps you understand that if you belong to the radical left, you have lost precious friends and allies.