Charlie Hebdo Cartoon Takes Aim at Dead Refugee Child

Charlie Hebdo Cartoon Takes Aim at Dead Refugee Child

January 13, 2016 – Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French newspaper attacked by Islamic extremists in early 2015, has printed another provocative image fueling the ire of many. The cartoon by Hebdo contributor and publishing director Laurent Sourisseau is a response to reports that refugees were the primary culprits in mass sexual assaults across European cities on New Year’s Eve. The drawing (shown below) imagines Aylan Kurdi, the famously photographed 3 year-old Syrian refugee who washed ashore in Turkey, having survived his journey only to grow up to become a “groper in Germany.”

Sourisseau, also known as “Riss,” was present during the attack on Charlie Hebdo offices in January 2015 which gave birth to the worldwide call of “Je suis Charlie.”

Response to the cartoon has been loud.

Hebdo – ‘What would little Aylan have grown up to be? Ass groper in Germany’. Don’t be apalled you just don’t get it pic.twitter.com/LIYJEYjydy

— Nesrine Malik (@NesrineMalik) January 13, 2016

i’m sure this is just sophisticated french humour a philistine like me could never understand https://t.co/YB3qYomyJ0 — Adam Serwer (@AdamSerwer) January 13, 2016

Disgusting cartoon in Charlie Hebdo (“what would’ve become of Aylan had he grown up? A groper”) via @faizazpic.twitter.com/iB4myFb1ke

— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) January 13, 2016

Others, however, feel that the point of the cartoon is being missed. According to the Washington Post:

“Charlie Hebdo may well have been satirizing the fickleness of Europe’s sympathy for refugees and migrants, or highlighting the absurdity of linking the many fearful refugee families to the alleged sexual assaults by grown men.”

You decide…is this Charlie Hebdo cartoon Funny or Offensive? VOTE and COMMENT now…