Charlie Hebdo and Aylan Kurdi

I recently saw the recent Charlie hebdo cartoons depicting the drowned 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi.

This was the picture that shocked Europe into rallying behind the refugees and letting the vast hordes in.

All the West was embarrassed that the inaction cost the lives of the "truly innocent".  As a result, they opened up their borders to varying degrees and the huddled, abused, masses were given hope.
When recently  Charley Hebdo ran the series of articles depicting the fallen child,  I too, was truly shocked, and outraged, at a visceral level by the cartoons. I  found myself agreeing with critics who said that the magazine had,  once again gone too far.

The images of the drowned boy were too painful, too raw and not appropriate as a medium of satire. There had to be a line that decency would not allow us to cross.

And this went way, way beyond that point.

Then I read a review that claimed that Charlie Hebdo's Aylan series might be their best work yet. The article explained that Europe hadn't cared about the refugees or their plight. The borders were closed and nobody lost any sleep over the plight of the Syrians. One picture melted their heart and they changed their outlook.

Then on new years eve, German women were groped en masse at the festivities and allegations were that it was the immigrant refugees who were responsible.
Suddenly the refugees were all "sex fiends" and would be  "terrorists" all over again.

The cartoons were meant to show the public how fickle they had been and still were. So at face value, they appeared crude and vulgar but underneath they taught society a lesson.
But maybe such lessons are too subtle as people often just read things at face value and at that level it seems the opposite of the intended message.

M Parak 2016

This piece was written before the cartoons of the prophet issue.