The French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo is being criticized for going too far this time.
It’s latest cover features an image with Hurricane Harvey victims as neo-Nazis drowning. The disturbing imagery is paired with the title, “God Exists! He Drowned All the Neo-Nazis of Texas.”
Hurricane Harvey has devastated several areas of Texas the storm’s four feet of rain caused massive flooding. Millions of dollars, with the help of celebrities and businesses, have been raised for the victims of Harvey. More than 35 people have died due to the storm.
While it looks like those in U.S. have banded together to support those impacted by the Hurricane, Charlie Hebho is instead mocking these victims by labeling them all as neo-Nazis that deserved to be drowned.
Charlie Hebdo is a magazine known for being controversial. Back in 2015, 12 people in the magazine’s Paris office were killed by Radical Islamic terrorists for joking about Islam religious leaders.
Evidently, the magazine’s latest stunt is getting a lot of attention and has been heavily criticized.
“This Charlie Hebdo cover on the Houston disaster is, even by their standards, absolutely disgusting,” tweeted Piers Morgan, British media personality.
“French rag Charlie Hebdo mocks Harvey victims as Neo Nazis. Charlie Hebdo makes fun of everyone but Muslims. Cowards,” tweeted Joe Walsh, radio host and former congressman.
“An evil, despicable cover. Also, the losers at Charlie Hebdo have a God-given right to publish it, & no one has the right to shoot them,” tweeted Tiana Lowe, a writer for the National Review.
Charlie Hebdo isn’t the only publication poking fun at Texas’ misfortune.
“Politico cartoonist Matt Wuerker came under fire for a cartoon that mocked Texans as hypocritical. The illustration showed a Texan in a shirt sporting the Confederate flag being lifted from the roof of a flooded house. On the roof is a sign reading “secede.” The man celebrates the rescue as “Angels! Sent by God!” The punchline: “Er, actually Coast Guard … sent by the government,” writes The Washington Post. “Our colleagues at The Fix called the illustration tone-deaf, writing that “people are still being saved, and it’s making fun of those same people.”
Politico was quick to delete the tweet with the cartoon.
Author’s note: Why isn’t there more of an outcry from the public about this? Not only was Texas’ misfortune mocked, but the residents were all labeled as Nazis in the illustration. Mocking a tragedy like this is absolutely disgusting.
Editor’s note: According to Wikipedia, France has “hate speech” laws to protect against “being defamed or insulted because they belong or do not belong, in fact or in fancy, to an ethnicity, a nation, a race, a religion, a sex, or a sexual orientation, or because they have a handicap.” And yet it is OK to insult the victims of hurricane, kicking them when they are down.