Slain editor of Charlie Hebdo calls 'Islamophobia' racism in newly published book

The 88-page book, whose title translates as "Letters to tricksters of Islamophobia who are playing the game of racists" was written by Stephane Charbonnier, known as Charb, and released in France Thursday.

In the book, Charbonnier condemns journalists, politicians and others who he accuses of using the fear of Islam for their own purposes.

Charbonnier was one of 12 people killed by gunmen who opened fire on a staff meeting of the satirical newspaper in Paris on Jan. 7. Several other people were wounded.

The two attackers, French brothers of Algerian descent, appeared to have been motivated by disgust over the weekly satirical newspaper's caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The brothers were shot dead two days later by French police.

In an eerily prescient reference, Charbonnier writes in the book that "one day, just for laughs, I should publish all the threat letters that I received at Charlie Hebdo from Catholic fascists and Muslim fascists" alike. Charbonnier received death threats after Charlie Hebdo first published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006.

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In his book, which contains no cartoon caricatures, Charbonnier criticizes people who demonize Muslims.

"If one day all Muslims in France converted to Catholicism ... these foreigners or French of foreign origin would still be seen as responsible for all ills," he wrote.

Charbonnier accused the media of helping to popularize the term "Islamophobia," saying that "any scandal that contains the word Islam in its title sells. A terrorist is scary, but if you add that he's an Islamist, everyone wets themselves," he wrote.

He suggests that such attitudes should be called "Muslim-o-phobia," rather than "Islamophobia," targeting the people involved rather than the religions.

Charbonnier says the problem is not world religions, but rather those who practice and distort them.

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"The problem is not the Quran or the Bible — sleep-inducing, incoherent and badly written novels — but the faithful who read the Quran or the Bible like you read assembly instructions for Ikea shelves," Charbonnier wrote.

The slim book also defends his magazine's policy of poking fun at world religions, including the publications of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, something many Muslims take offense to.

"The suggestion that you can laugh at everything, except certain aspects of Islam, because Muslims are much more sensitive than the rest of the population - what is that, if not discrimination?" he wrote.