There are other ways of addressing these issues. Charlie Hebdo is not something that should even be brought into a school, much less used as a teaching aide. Have you ever seen it? There is mercifully no British equivalent. But if there were, then any teacher would be sacked, and any pupil at least suspended, merely for having brought it in. These days, a teacher might even be sacked for having it at home.
There are sometimes comparisons with Private Eye, with Viz, with various things. But quite apart from the fact that you certainly could not have Viz in school, and that you probably could not use Private Eye as a teaching aide at least below the Sixth Form, Charlie Hebdo has none of the wit of either. It is just a nasty, vicious publication.
Ever since the attack, you will have heard the markedly muted sympathy for Charlie Hebdo among people who knew France and French. Everyone else vaguely disapproves when one lot of drug dealers guns down another lot, or when one lot of terrorists blows up another lot. But no one else mourns very much. This is much like that.
It is a pity that Charlie Hebdo was given what it wanted. Adolescents swearing for attention are best ignored. As for the reaction, it was hilarious. There was a state demonstration, featuring assorted African and Eastern European despots alongside a British Prime Minister who was given to having hecklers arrested.
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