Are the Charlie Hebdo cartoons needlessly provocative?

Available for over a year

Are new cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo needlessly provocative? The editor is quoted as saying the caricatures - several of which depict Muhammad naked - will "shock those who want to be shocked". The French Foreign Minister has criticised them as a provocation, following a week of global protests against an anti-Muslim film. What do you think of the decision to publish them?