Key Points
- A French newspaper has published a cartoon depicting Qatar's national football team as terrorists.
- Critics have called the media outlet racist and Islamophobic.
French newspaper Le Canard enchaîné has been accused of racism after publishing a cartoon depicting Qatar's national football team appearing to hold weapons and wearing balaclavas.
The caricature was published in the satirical publication's October issue focused on . It featured seven footballers with "Qatar" on their jerseys, with some wearing balaclavas and holding pistols, assault rifles, rocket launchers, and even one wearing a suicide vest.
Critics have accused the outlet of Islamophobia, saying that depicting Qatari footballers as terrorists is racist and takes away .
President of the Qatar National Library, Dr Hamad Al-Kawari, said while "satire is welcome" it was an image based on lies and hatred.
"Even harsh satire is welcome," he wrote on Twitter.
"But le Canard Enchaine decided to resort to lies, hatred and resentment to attack Qatar and denigrate it.
"Keep some loyalty and sportsmanship at least."
A cartoon published by French newspaper Le Canard Enchaine depicting the Qatar national football team holding weapons and wearing balaclavas. Source: Hassanalansari3/Twitter Source: Twitter / @Hassanalansari3
"French racist newspapers depict Qatar and its football team in an extremely racist and Islamophobic way," he wrote.
"Reality is that their depiction ignores the facts."
The Twitter bio of the newspaper reads: "Freedom of the press only wears out when you don't use it".
French media outlets have received backlash from Muslim countries before, such as when satirical political magazine Charlie Hebdo published a caricature of the prophet Muhammad in 2012 which led to the 2015 terrorist attacks.
Many Muslims believe that visual depictions of all the prophets of Islam should be prohibited and are particularly averse to visual representations of Muhammad.
Charlie Hebdo published a caricature of a sobbing Muhammad on its cover in 2006, and later depicted the prophet as gay in 2011. In 2012, the newspaper published a series of cartoons including one that showed Muhammad as a nude man on all fours.
In the 2015 attacks, two French Muslim brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the Charlie Hebdo offices armed with rifles and killed 12 people and injured 11 others.
Charlie Hebdo republished the cartoon in 2020, with the title "All of this, just for that".
"We will never lie down. We will never give up," director Laurent "Riss" Sourisseau wrote in an editorial to go with the cartoons.
"The hatred that struck us is still there and, since 2015, it has taken the time to mutate, to change its appearance, to go unnoticed and to quietly continue its ruthless crusade," he said.
After Charlie Hebdo republished the cartoon in 2020, protesters in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan publicly burned the French flag.
France’s Qatar Ambassador has been contacted for comment.
