Artist you should knowArts and CultureNewsPress

Cartoons from the Arab World, France, & The US React Differently to the Paris Attacks

Updated: Jun 12, 2023 10:03
The Bay's best newsletter for underground events & news

New Charlie Hebdo Cover today shows defiance in the face of violence.  The cover text translates roughly to, “They have the weapons…but fuck them…we have the Champagne”.  The Parisian satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was brutality attacked by Muslim extremists in January 2015 with explosives and automatic weapons.  They refused to lay down their pens or allow fear to change their beliefs then, and they certainly will not change their beliefs or way of life after the most recent Paris Attacks.

CUAeaO0UsAA8f2m


 

You may recognize this watercolor by artist Jean Jullien, it went viral the night of the Paris Attacks.  In the following hours and days it appeared in millions of news feeds and most likely became the profile picture of someone you know. The London-based French graphic designer Jean Jullien, told CNN Sunday morning, “I thought we needed a message for peace.”

jean_jullien


 

US Cartoons

Meanwhile in America, there were deeply contrasting reactions form the right and left as one can imagine.  From the Arizona Republic, Steve Benson depicts the statue of liberty with an assault rifle.

stevebenson

 

While Ben Schwartz of the New Yorker took a more mournful and nostalgic route, depicting a well known children’s book based in Paris, Madeline.  His caption is a play on the original book’s opening lines: “In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.”

 

Then their were the obvious and frankly unimaginative comparisons of the Eiffel Tower to the World Trade Center 9/11 attacks, by the Int. Herald Tribune and Universal Uclick.


 

Cartoons from the Arab World

Perhaps the most interesting and contrasting depictions are from Arab cartoonists.  A cartoonist on the “Message of Islam” publication reminds the world of the massive suffering in middle eastern countries being ignored by a man labeled the “international community”.  Bed on the left with the finger bandage says ‘France’, Bed on the right with the body cast says ‘Syria’.

 

Then you have the cartoon from Egyptian based news network Arabia21 implying that the EU’s Middle Eastern policies have brought death to their door.

 

Arab-Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff seems to want to blame the US and French leadership as the cause of the attacks from ISIS.

 

Jordanian cartoonist Osama Hajjaj depicts a French woman crying.  A woman personifying ‘Liberty’ as in the famous painting by Eugène Delacroix  Liberty Leading the People through the French Revolution.

 

Then we have government-owned Iranian newspaper al-Alam with a cartoon titled “Wahhabi terror strikes Paris“.  I suppose the west shouldn’t expect much from the Iranian government

 

We have the Jerusalem Post reporting that the Palestinian political party Fatah is posting cartoons that blame the Paris Attacks on Israel…

fatah movement


 

Paris

Artist Joann Sfar of Charlie Hebdo had a message about secularism, and about how #pairsisaboutlife

joann sfar

Previous post

Why Moving The Warriors is Bad for The Team and San Francisco

Next post

Meet Me in the Bathroom and Tell Me All Your Secrets


Alex Mak - Managing Editor

Alex Mak - Managing Editor

I'm the managing editor and co-owner of this little expiriment. I enjoy covering Bay Area News as well as writing about Arts, Culture & Nightlife.

If you're a writer, artist, or performer who would like to get your work out there, or if you've got great things to promote, we've got 160k followers and really fun ways to reach them. We love making things with other Bay creatives, for our partners, and our community. Don't be shy.
alex at brokeassstuart.com
IG: @alexmaksf