Charlie Hebdo mocks drowned Syrian kid. Twitter is not amused
Charlie Hebdo was today facing legal action after publishing a series of allegedly racist and hateful cartoons mocking the death of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi. The drowned three-year-old toddler has become the symbol of the refugee crisis after haunting pictures appeared showing his body being carried off a Turkish beach last week.
| The body of Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi was washed up on Bodrum beach, in Turkey on September 2. He drowned, along with his mother and five-year-old brother, after their boat capsized as they tried to reach the Greek island of Kos. |
But the latest edition of the satirical French magazine depicts the dead Aylan lying face down in the sand under the caption "So Close to Goal". Above him is an advertisement for McDonald’s reading: "Two children’s menus for the price of one".
| Critics claim Charlie Hebdo has overstepped the mark after it published a series of cartoons mocking the death of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, whose body was washed up on a Turkish beach this month. |
Another depiction of the dead Aylan shows him next to Casimir, an orange dinosaur, under the caption "Welcome to Children’s Island". There is also a cartoon mocking Aylan’s religion, with a caption reading: "Proof that Europe is Christian". It shows a Jesus-like figure next to the words "Christians walk on water" and a little boy upended in the sea next to the words "Muslim children sink".
The drawings come nine months after 12 people were murdered by Jihadi gunmen around the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo after the magazine mocked the Prophet Mohammed in a series of cartoons. It led to millions around the world including politicians and celebrities rallying under the ‘Je Suis Charlie’ (‘I am Charlie’) slogan, as it came to represent free speech. Read more here.
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