By Hakim Khatib
Queen of Jordan, Rania Al Abdullah, published a cartoon featuring the drowned Syrian boy Alan Kurdi in response to “Charlie Hebdo”.
On 14 January 2016, the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo published a drawing of the drowned three-year-old Syrian boy, Alan Kurdi, found dead on a Turkish beach in September, in which the boy would have grown up to become a sex attacker.
Charlie Hebdo’s cartoon depicts two male creatures running after terrified women. The caption beside the cartoon says: “What would little boy Alan have grown up to be? A groper in Germany.”
In response to Charlie Hebdo newspaper, Queen Al Abdullah commissioned a cartoon on her twitter with the caption: “What would little boy Alan have grown up to be?” The queen’s response was: “A doctor, a teacher or a loving father”.
While image of the little boy lying face down on a Turkish beach prompted a wave of sympathy in the world last year, the Charlie Hebdo caricature caused a wave of anger and disappointment all over the social media. Many marked the cartoon of the little boy as offensive.
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Hakim Khatib is a lecturer in journalism, intercultural communication and the politics and culture of the Middle East at Fulda and Darmstadt Universities of Applied Sciences and Phillips University Marburg. He specializes in the application of religion into political life and discourse in the Middle East and the editor-in-chief of the Mashreq Politics and Culture (MPC Journal – www.mpc-journal.org).