JeSuisCharlie? Social Media Outrage As Cartoon Appears To Mock Death Of Syrian Child

Reuters

You probably remember Charlie Hebdo, the controversial French satirical magazine which lost 12 staff cartoonists earlier this year when two Jihadi gunmen opened fire in their Paris offices.

Those attacks were in response to illustrations which appeared to mock muslims and the prophet Mohammed, and the publication certainly hasn’t backed down from their stance if their latest cartoons are anything to go by!

Indeed, Charlie Hebdo could now face legal action after they published a series of cartoons appearing to mock the death of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi.

The drowned three-year-old has become the symbol of the refugee crisis after shocking photographs showed him lying dead on a Turkish beach.

And the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo has caused outrage with various drawings representing Aylan accompanied by captions such as “So close to goal” and “The proof that Europe is Christian”.

Another cartoon shows him next to an advertisement for McDonald’s reading, “Two children’s menus for the price of one”, and another mocks Aylan’s religion, showing a Jesus-like figure next to the words “Christians walk on water” and a little boy falling into the sea accompanied by the words “Muslim children sink”.

At the time of the attacks January, millions around the world rallied around the publication under the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie as Hebdo came to represent free speech.

However, in the wake of today’s outrageous cartoons, many people on social media called out the apparent racism of the publication, with many asking the question, “JeSuisCharlie now?”

https://twitter.com/helloitsimaan/status/643350419285143552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/clark_theory/status/643368883286622208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Charlie Hebdo continued publication following the January terrorist attacks, and has since made millions in donations and sales.

Defenders of the magazine’s cartoons – which have also included a depiction of a black politician as a monkey – argue that they employ racist and religious stereotypes to mock the stereotypes themselves, rather than race or religion.

UNILAD