The march in Paris on Sunday, attended (sort of) by world leaders, was about free speech.

Ostensibly.

But it seems that it is not only the terrorists who can’t take a joke:

Anti-semitic French comedian Dieudonné was arrested after he seemingly compared himself to the terrorist who murdered four people at a kosher supermarket in Paris last week.

Dieudonné M’Bala M’bala, 48, who was being held for questioning at a Paris police station, could face possible charges of “apology for terrorism“.

Paris state prosecutors opened a formal investigation on Monday night into remarks made by the comedian on his Facebook page after the vast “Republican march” in Paris on Sunday.

After mocking the media superlatives about the march, the comedian declared: “As for me, I feel I am Charlie Coulibaly”.

Amedy Coulibaly was the man who took hostages and killed four people at the Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris last Friday before being killed by police.

Dieudonné’s comments generated a wave of fury on the internet – including many angry reactions from his own fans on his Facebook page. His statement was withdrawn after less than an hour.

The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, called the comment “abject” and asked his officials to investigate whether the comedian should be prosecuted for breaching a French law which forbids “apology for” or encouragement of terrorism.

Asked why Dieudonne was a criminal and the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were not, French Prime Minister Valls explained that the terrorists attacked the weekly for blasphemy, which is not a crime in secular France, while hate speech is.

That’s a fine distinction which also has the virtue of being untrue.  Charlie Hebdo definitely engaged in hate speech.