Story highlights Sally Kohn: It's possible to back free speech but object to Charlie Hebdo cartoons

Kohn warns not to dismiss all of Islam as extreme

Sally Kohn is an activist, columnist and television commentator. Follow her on Twitter: @sallykohn. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) In the aftermath of the heinous attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in France, many are tweeting and writing in solidarity: Je suis Charlie. But I'm not. Because I am not Charlie.

Of course, I unequivocally support the right to free speech. Period. And I also believe in choosing to exercise that right responsibly and respectfully. That's why I would not have published cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed, insulting 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide in the process (and no, I wouldn't have published many of Charlie Hebdo's cartoons insulting Judaism and Christianity, either).

In no way should this be taken -- as it has been by some on Twitter -- to suggest that I somehow condone the killings of Charlie Hebdo's staff. That's a ridiculously insulting idea and just plain wrong. It's possible to honor and protect the free speech rights of publications like Charlie Hebdo while simultaneously believing such cartoons are unnecessarily disrespectful and offensive.

As others have pointed out, in the wake of the Paris attacks we've conflated support for free speech with support for the actual speech in question. But while I unquestionably support the free speech rights of the KKK and "god hates fags" protesters, for example, that clearly doesn't mean I would support, never mind join in, their hateful messages. Some on the right insist that media should have to re-print Charlie Hebdo's anti-Islam cartoons or else they're cowardly. However, this is a fundamental perversion of free speech, to say the least. There is no inconsistency between supporting free speech for Charlie Hebdo's cartoonists and finding the content of some of their cartoons offensive and disrespectful.

I don't profess to be a scholar of Islam. But it's plain that some branches or interpretations of the faith view any depictions of the Prophet Mohammed as blasphemy. That doesn't mean that all Muslims who see such depictions as blasphemy think the appropriate response is violence; far from it. But a radical few do, and, as Middle East commentator Juan Cole has argued, they exploit such defamations against the prophet to try to radicalize others in the faith.

Read More