The Society of Black Lawyers has threatened to report the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for incitement to hate crime and persecution.
Barrister Peter Herbert, Chair of the Society of Black Lawyers and former vice chair of the now defunct Metropolitan Police Authority, was reacting to the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo.
Charlie Hebdo gained international notoriety in January when, having published a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, 12 people were gunned down around the magazine’s office by Jihadi terrorists.
The latest edition of the magazine depicts the drowned body of Aylan Kurdi lying on the beach under the caption “So Close to Goal” with a McDonald’s ad above reading: “Two children’s menus for the price of one”. Another cartoon headed “The proof that Europe is Christian” shows Jesus next to the words “Christians walk on water” and the legs of a child head down in the sea next to the words “Muslim children sink”.
The Chair of the Society of Black Lawyers has now accused the magazine of being “racist, xenophobic and ideologically bankrupt.”
Not satisfied with merely calling out Charlie Hebdo, Herbert suggests the Society of Black Lawyers is considering taking the matter further.
Although Herbert has not yet commented further on his plan to take the matter before the International Criminal Court, he has offered one more opinion on the subject.
It appears that Herbert believes the cartoons were an attack on Aylan Kurdi, however, as Maajid Nawaz of counter-extremism think tank the Quilliam Foundation points out, that misses the point.
Citing the example of the McDonald’s cartoon Nawaz breaks the rule – “Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process” – to set out what the artist intended to depict (click on the Daily Mail picture to see the full front cover).
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