They most certainly used racist caricatures on a consistent basis. Of course it's tragic (and completely unacceptable) when people use violence to silence speech, but let's not whitewash Charlie Hebdo's islamophobic tendencies.

For a more detailed argument see for instance this article:

http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2015/01/in-the-wake-of-char...

That article is nonsensical.

Someone calling racism this:

"Even in a fresh-off-the-press, glowing BBC profile of Charb, Hebdo’s murdered editor, he comes across as a racist asshole.

Charb had strongly defended Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad.

“Muhammad isn’t sacred to me,” he told the Associated Press in 2012, after the magazine’s offices had been fire-bombed.

“I don’t blame Muslims for not laughing at our drawings. I live under French law. I don’t live under Koranic law.” "

is someone that doesn't know anything about racism

And the "welfare queens" quote is really funny

>They are not racists, you are sadly misinformed.

I'm guessing you didn't really check carefully. They do mock Islam (and Judaism), and also publish flat-out racist cartoons. They're not mutually exclusive. They publish a lot of offensive cartoons, like the one linked to by the OP depicting Boko Haram sex slaves as welfare queens. They should be free to do that without getting murdered by fanatics.

> and also publish flat-out racist cartoons

Then it will be easy to provide proof of that, isn't?

The one with the racist stereotype caricatures of pregnant women enslaved by Boko Haram saying "don't touch our welfare" seems pretty racist to me (the lame French play on words about child-benefits/wefare is revoltingly callous and mean-spirited). The huge-nosed Jews they feature with discussing Jews are completely racist as well.

Perhaps you lack the context of that image but it is not racist, the contrary, they are criticising Boko Haram AND the French right wing anti immigrant.

And now you will say that when they parody the rural French they are also racists.

And the Jews?

Are you aware that they use stereotypes to make the parody?

Perhaps also you will find racist the caricature of Le Pen as a pig

>Are you aware that they use stereotypes to make the parody?

Yes, I see what they are doing. It's actually very common to use racist stereotypes in parody and satire. It's also still totally racist to draw huge nosed Jews (and huge-lipped black people). Drawing huge-nosed Jews in the context of criticizing Jews might be parody, but it's not some subtle ironic parody of right-wing ignorance, it's just a crass racist joke.

Yes, and drawing pictures of Spanish as toreros is racists, and drawing pictures of French as cheese eaters is racist.

Everything is racist in some minds even if the people drawing those pictures are part of Non Racist organisations.

I did not had to check anything as I had read the newspaper. They do not mock the religions themselves but the way people practice their religion.