The outpouring of sympathy for the victims of Wednesday’s deadly attack on the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French weekly where cartoons offending believers of all faiths were printed with glee, has been widespread but not universal on social networks.

After messages of solidarity using the slogan #JeSuisCharlie, or “I am Charlie,” spread online and on the streets Wednesday — and publications around the world reprinted the newspaper’s cartoons mocking Islam and other religions, arguing that doing so was a necessary defense of free speech — some dissenters began to question the logic.

A blogger from Northern Ireland who writes as Nine suggested that it was possible to be outraged by the killings but still say “I am not Charlie” in response to the offensive nature of the publication’s cartoons.

I can be sad & horrified at murders of journalists without painting a racist publication as heroic. Je ne suis pas Charlie. — Nine (@supernowoczesna) 8 Jan 15

Writing on Twitter, Yousef Munayyer, the former director of the Palestine Center in Washington, argued that the killings were abhorrent but that the newspaper’s cartoons were, in his view, racist nonetheless and should not be celebrated.

If an editor of a white power mag is killed for publishing anti-black or anti-jewish content, should it be republished to save free speech? — Yousef Munayyer (@YousefMunayyer) 8 Jan 15

The question is for those saying if we don’t publish this, the terrorists win. To what extent are you willing to take that and why? #pt — Yousef Munayyer (@YousefMunayyer) 8 Jan 15

Charlie has a right to say what he wants & certainly not be killed for it. However, I’m not Charlie, nor want to be, if Charlie spews racism — Yousef Munayyer (@YousefMunayyer) 8 Jan 15

The notion that Charlie Hebdo cartoons intended to skewer racism and intolerance at times themselves crossed the line was vigorously rejected by the French justice minister, Christiane Taubira, a black woman who was once portrayed as a monkey in the publication, as it commented on similar far-right attacks on her. After the attack on Wednesday, Ms. Taubira called a free press “the enemy of obscurantism and violence,” and said it was inconceivable that the publication should cease to publish.

#CharlieHebdo Premier rempart et dernier bastion de la Démocratie, la presse libre est l’ennemie de l’obscurantisme et de la violence. ChT — Christiane Taubira (@ChTaubira) 7 Jan 15

“On ne peut pas concevoir la disparition de #CharlieHebdo. Ce serait une victoire pour eux.” — Christiane Taubira (@ChTaubira) 8 Jan 15

Siddhartha Mitter, an American journalist who grew up in France, and Ali Abunimah, the Palestinian-American founder of the Electronic Intifada, were among those suggesting that Charlie Hebdo had transformed from radical left-wing publication in the 1970s into a journal with more reactionary politics in recent years.

You don’t have to “be Charlie” or subscribe to Charlie Hebdo, trenchant in the 1970s. It’s OK to just feel crushed by the senseless death. — siddhartha mitter (@siddhmi) 7 Jan 15

“The whole point was to be tasteless and obscene”—this by @artgoldhammer, on French satire tradition, is excellent //t.co/hBBZfDHvke — siddhartha mitter (@siddhmi) 7 Jan 15

The quibble that remains, of course, is that there’s no such thing as an “equal opportunity offender.” Everyone is protecting something. — siddhartha mitter (@siddhmi) 7 Jan 15

Charlie Hebdo’s slide from 70s trenchant counterculture to today’s warmed-over sidelines antics is a malady of the broader public discourse. — siddhartha mitter (@siddhmi) 7 Jan 15

From 2012: Article on how Charlie Hebdo had morphed from radical left-wing paper to purveyor of anti-Muslim hatred //t.co/CrdJ823x9L — Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) 8 Jan 15

Dyab Abou Jahjah, a Lebanese-born activist living in Belgium, suggested that it would be more appropriate to say “Je Suis Ahmed,” to pay tribute to Ahmed Merabet, the wounded police officer who was gunned down by the militants on a sidewalk outside the newspaper on Wednesday.

I am not Charlie, I am Ahmed the dead cop. Charlie ridiculed my faith and culture and I died defending his right to do so. #JesuisAhmed — Dyab Abou Jahjah (@Aboujahjah) 8 Jan 15

The killing of the officer, and an exchange of words between him and a gunman, was captured on video by a witness, shared online and later reproduced on the front page on The Times of London.

.@thetimes front page with final words of officer #AhmedMerabet, executed by #CharlieHebdo murderers //t.co/PNQOuDnMaY — Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) 8 Jan 15

That Mr. Merabet was, according to the French daily Le Figaro, a French Muslim complicated the narrative of a war of civilizations embraced by extremists in Europe and the Middle East, as Mr. Abou Jahjah and the American writer Adam Shatz pointed out.

This will not be the last attack by the #SalafoNazis and this will be welcomed with champagne by the #NeoNazis #Charliehebdo — Dyab Abou Jahjah (@Aboujahjah) 7 Jan 15

Both Paris killers & the anti-Muslim right claim that Europe & Islam are at war, a seductive, dangerous lie that any response must fight. — Adam Shatz (@adamshatz) 8 Jan 15

Mr. Abou Jahjah, who leads a citizens movement and writes a column for the Belgian daily De Standaard, agreed with this sentiment in a comment posted on Facebook on Wednesday:

I certainly understand why so many Europeans are afraid of extreme Islamists. And they are right to be afraid. But do they understand that the absolute majority of Muslims is also afraid of extreme Islamists? Do they also realize that the absolute majority of Muslims are afraid of right-extremism abusing their fear to stigmatize all Muslims in their eyes? I hope we will not end up in a situation where we all will feel that we need to hide from each other behind the broad shoulders and the clenched fists of our own extremists. At that moment we are all doomed. The answer is to fight all extremism together. And to fight it hard! Because at the essence, it is all the same.

— ROBERT MACKEY