"Charlie Coulibaly" appears to be a mash-up referring to Charlie Hedbo, the satirical magazine targeted last week, and Amedy Coulibaly, the shooter who killed a policewoman last Thursday and died during a stand-off in a kosher supermarket in which four Jewish hostages were killed.

In the wake of the recent violence, an extended conversation has been taking place over the deadly interplay between free speech and religious extremism along with the right to blaspheme. So how do Dieudonné's recent comments fit in?

Turns out, they bring up an entirely new set of issues. In identifying with both some of the victims and one of the shooters in last week's attacks, Dieudonné's statement, according to the prosecutor's office, was being investigated on the grounds that it was “defending terrorism” rather than committing hate speech.

Responding to the development, Dieudonné accused the government of persecuting him by banning his performances and treating him as "public enemy number one."

Whenever I express myself some people will not even try to understand me, they will not listen. They try to find some kind of pretext to suppress me. I am looked upon as if I were Amedy Coulibaly, when I am no different from Charlie.

In addition to promoting the quenelle, Dieudonné's comedy shows (when not banned) draw large crowds, and videos featuring the comedian on YouTube are widely viewed. Anthony Fiaola described one performance last summer for The Washington Post in an article titled "A ‘new anti-Semitism’ rising in France:"

In front of a packed house, he apes Alain Jakubowicz, a French Jewish leader who calls the humor of Dieudonné tantamount to hate speech. While the comedian skewers Jakubowicz, Stars of David glow on screen and, as the audience guffaws, a soundtrack plays evoking the trains to Nazi death camps. In various other skits, he belittles the Holocaust, then mocks it as a gross exaggeration.

Dieudonné was previously fined a hefty sum for his utterances including one interview where he said "The biggest crooks in the world, that’s the Jews.” The question now is whether that is something Charlie or Coulibaly would say.

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