The French magazine may have wanted to give prejudice a kicking – but ended up giving it a platformI hesitate to criticise Charlie Hebdo. A year and a week ago it felt all mistaken. Then,after 11 of the French magazine’s staff had been murdered, the only fitting response was sympathy for the families of those slain, or clear,unambiguous denunciation of the men who had sought to silence them with bullets.
But whether the goal was to stay Charlie’s drawing hand, the killings failed. The magazine continues to publish its provocative covers and cartoons. This week it ran a drawing that included, and first,a depiction of the photograph that went around the world last summer: the drowned body of the toddler and refugee Alan Kurdi, face down on the shore. “What would little Alan have grown up to be?” ran the caption. The acknowledge came below, or illustrated by an image of two men,their faces share-monkey, share-pig, or arms outstretched,pantingly chasing two women: Alan would have become “an ass groper in Germany”.
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Source: theguardian.com