Alan Kurdi and the front page of Charlie Hebdo (Picture: Charlie Hebdo/AFP/Getty Images)

Controversial magazine Charlie Hebdo has published an illustration based on drowned Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi.

It has faced a backlash of criticism as a result, but it appears as though many people have simply missed the point.

The image includes the messages ‘Welcome to migrants!’, ‘So near his goal…,’ and a McDonald’s-like promotion offering ‘2 kids menus for the price of one’.

Some believe the magazine – which lost 11 staff in a terror attack earlier this year – was mocking Alan. Some have even gone as far as threatening to report the publication to the International Criminal Court.


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Charlie Hebdo's new cover "Proof that Europe is Christian – Christians walk on water – Muslim kids drown" speechless pic.twitter.com/xsbZ5fjwNz — olive oil (@SimplyRim) September 13, 2015

But Maajid Nawaz, who heads up counter-extremism think-tank Quilliam, argued critics had missed the point of the cartoons that also featured a Jesus like figure accompanied by the caption: ‘Proof that Europe is Christian. Christians walk on water – Muslim children sink.’



‘Taste is always in the eye of the beholder,’ Nawaz wrote on Facebook. ‘But these cartoons are a damning indictment on our anti-refugee sentiment.

‘The McDonald’s image is a searing critique of heartless European consumerism in the face of one of the worst human tragedies of our times.

‘The image about Christians walking on water while Muslims drown is (so obviously) critiquing hypocritical European Christian “love”.

‘Fellow Muslims, not everything and everyone are against us, every time. But if we keep assuming they are by reacting like this, they will surely become so.’

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Charlie Hebdo’s front cover which features the death of Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi (Picture: Charlie Hebdo)

Journalist Sunny Hundal agreed and added: ‘I’ve seen a LOT of angry FB posts today about the cover from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which apparently mocks the dead Syrian child Alan Kurdi.

‘It does not do that! It is actually mocking Europeans and their attitudes towards Muslims. It is annoying to see people claim the opposite.’

But those arguments failed to convince some people who still saw the cartoons, drawn by acting editor Laurent ‘Riss’ Sourisseau, as an attack on the boy and/or offensive.

Charlie Hebdo publishes cartoon of Aylan Kurdi. Because nothing says satire like a dead kid. http://t.co/qoK8nQJ8ol — Gary Younge (@garyyounge) September 14, 2015

I get it. I do. But at what cost? Should I mock the neo-Nazis by using gas chambers? No thanks. Have some taste. https://t.co/bZN8VSGU5y — Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) September 14, 2015

This is racism pure and simple and I say again: I am not Charlie. Charlie Hebdo mocks the death of Syrian toddler: http://t.co/fHDcaYJAEJ — Deepa Kumar (@ProfessorKumar) September 15, 2015

#CharlieHebdo freedom of speech my ass!! This is pure hate speech! #Disgusting — Tuapeua Dana Kauaria (@TKauaria) September 15, 2015

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