"'I am Charlie' gave birth to 'I am not Charlie,' giving rise to a question that demands picking camps: Are you or are you not Charlie?"

"The answer puts people on either side of France’s major fault lines, including freedom of speech, secularism, race, national identity and, of course, Islam... Today, someone who is Charlie is likely to be white and supporter of the caricatures’ publication. At its extreme, the person may back a strict secularism that at times is a cover for anti-Islam. Someone who’s not Charlie is often nonwhite and opposes the cartoons’ publication. The person could go as far as justifying Islamist terrorism or a ban of all criticism of religion. Once a slogan that transcended political cleavages, 'Je Suis Charlie' has now been largely embraced by the right and created splits on the left.... This fall, in the wake of the three recent attacks, Mr. Macron emphatically defended the republication of the caricatures as the 'right to blasphemy.' That stance led to protests in Muslim nations, was met with criticism or silence in the West, and left France isolated...."

From "Once a Slogan of Unity, ‘Je Suis Charlie’ Now Divides France/After the 2015 terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo, “I am Charlie” became a unifying slogan of free speech. Now it fuels divisions in an increasingly polarized country" (NYT).