Has Charlie Hebdo taken its racist slur too far, question online users?

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More than a year after its office in Paris was attacked by militants and several of its staff killed, the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has become a subject of yet another international controversy.

And unlike last year, not many people are coming forward to shout Je Suis Charlie (I am Charlie).

That’s because the latest cartoon by Charlie Hebdo claims that had three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi not drowned while fleeing civil war, he would have gone to become a rapist.

The cartoon suggests Aylan Kurdi may have grown up to be a sexual abuser like the immigrants accused of attacking women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve.

Under the headline ‘Migrants’, the cartoon shows two men with their tongues hanging out chasing screaming women.

Top left there is a depiction of the famous image of Aylan lying face down on the Mediterranean beach.

Cartoonist’s question next to the caricature asks, “What would little Aylan have grown up to be?”

The answer at the bottom of the cartoon is: “A** groper in Germany”.

This has caused huge outrage across the globe with many concluding that the satirical magazine may have taken its hatred against Muslim community too far.

While there are some who rationalise the cartoon as an attempt to portray the sex crimes allegedly being committed by Arab refugees, an overwhelming majority of online users have slammed Charlie Hebdo.

On Twitter one person wrote that the cartoon was “disgusting”, while ABC’s Middle East Correspondent Sophie McNeill called it “outrageous”.

Little Aylan’s tragic death last year had moved governments across Europe prompting them to open their borders to accommodate refugees from Syria.

Here is a snapshot of twitter conversation!

 

https://twitter.com/YanaMuhanna/status/687753705463087104

https://twitter.com/Sentletse/status/687713162649440257

https://twitter.com/comrahul/status/68769268677453824

 

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