Dear Charlie Hebdo, is cartoon on a dead baby really satire? French magazine faces legal action

Known for its satirical cartoons and polemics, French publication Charlie Hebdo might have taken it too far this time. The French magazine is being criticised widely for publishing a cartoon depicting the death of three-year-old Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi as its own controversial take on the refugee and migration crisis. The first cartoon shows a clown — that vaguely represents Ronald McDonald, the eponymous mascot of the McDonalds franchise — and what appears to be the toddler with a sign: “Welcome immigrants, so close to his goal. Promotion: Two children for the price of one.” The second cartoon shows a man, apparently Jesus, walking on water and a partially drowning child which says:  “Proof that Christians walk on water.” “Muslim children drown.” In the background a McDonald’s-style Happy Meal Board states, “Two children’s menus for the price of one.”

[caption id=“attachment_2434794” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Image courtesy: Twitter: @Tayyxb[/caption] Eight months after the terrorist attacks at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris which killed 12, the magazine has continued to create controversial content. Aylan drowned along with his brother and mother on 2 September when the boat they were travelling from the Greek island of Kos to the Turkish town of Bodrum capsized. The family fled after Islamic State militants advanced upon their home town of Kobane. The photograph of Aylan had shook the world and garnered a huge public support. According to Al Jazeera, the magazine may face legal action for inciting hate crimes for publishing the cartoon of Aylan. Chair of the Society of Black Lawyers, Peter Herbert, tweeted that the group is considering reporting Charlie Hebdo’s actions for inciting hate crimes and persecution before the International Criminal Court".

Social media was not pleased with the depiction of Aylan as a satire and deemed it offensive. The images, drawn by artist, Laurent “Riss” Sourisseau, have gone viral. Sourisseau, a political cartoonist, is chaperoned at all times by armed, plain-clothed police since the attack on their headquarters, The Independent reported.

Turkish newspaper The Daily Sabah claimed the images mock the drowned toddler, IANS report said. Morocco World News concurred, accusing the publication of “hiding behind the freedom of speech.” “Charlie Hebdo is a purely racist, xenophobic and ideologically bankrupt publication that represents the moral decay of France,” Barrister Peter Herbert, who is Chair of the Society of Black Lawyers and former vice chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority, tweeted. While a few on Twitter did not find a dead baby satirical at all to what is being considered as the biggest refugee crisis in recent times, others on social media shared the Hebdo cartoon saying that it was a powerful way of spreading the message. Even though, tasteless. Some comments have said that the cartoons are not mocking the dead child but are instead using the tragedy to ridicule Europe for not doing enough to prevent it.

The magazine in whose honour the slogan ‘Je Suis Charlie’ was coined, had garnered a lot of public support for freedom of speech and expression in the wake of the attack by Islamist militants. However, counter-hashtags had also appeared as expressions of disagreement with the unconditional support of Charlie Hebdo. The hashtag #JeNeSuisPasCharlie (“I am not Charlie”) was used by those who accused the magazine of racism. Maajid Nawaz, founder of the think-tank Quilliam, defended the magazine’s cartoon: “Taste is always in the eye of the beholder. But these cartoons are a damning indictment on our anti-refugee sentiment. Nawaz wrote on his Facebook, “The McDonald’s image is a searing critique of heartless European consumerism in the face of one of the worst human tragedies of our times. The image about Christians walking on water while Muslims drown is (so obviously) critiquing hypocritical European Christian “love”. Fellow Muslims, not everything and everyone are against us, every time. But if we keep assuming they are by reacting like this, they will surely become so.”

New Charlie Hebdo cartoons about Aylan Kurdi are causing online “Islamophobia” outrage: Fellow Muslims, please, if you… Posted by Maajid Nawaz on  Monday, 14 September 2015