Cartoon Depicts Christian Boy as Islamophobic Bully
A British charity for kids recently published a cartoon depicting a boy wearing a cross bullying a Muslim girl in a head scarf.
As reported by U.K.'s Mail Online, the government-funded charity Who Cares? Trust, whose magazine readers range in age from eight to 12-years-old, published a cartoon strip titled "Standing Up for What You Believe In" in its latest quarterly edition that has a boy wearing a prominent, large gold cross pointing at a smiling Muslim girl in a head scarf and telling his friend that she looks like a terrorist.
Later, the Christian boy confronts her and rudely asks, "Hey, whatever your name is, what are you hiding under your turban?"
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The Muslim girl replies that the head scarf is called a hijab and is part of her religion, "like that cross you wear." She is also shown in the comic strip to defend another boy who is being bullied, showing a stark contrast to the behavior of the boy wearing the cross.
Who Cares? Trust, received about $147,600 from the British government's Department for Children, Schools and Families in 2007 and 2008.
British Christians as well as members of parliament have decried the cartoon for sending the wrong message to children.
The Christian Institute critically questioned the charity on how it thinks Christian children who receive the magazine would feel when they "see themselves mocked as narrow-minded Islamaphobes," according to the Mail.
"It is a clumsy caricature, symptomatic of a culture which says it is OK to bully Christians in the name of diversity," said the Institute's spokesman Mike Judge.
Members of parliaments have also criticized the cartoon for having the boy bully wear a cross, pointing out that it's hard to imagine a magazine having a Muslim girl behaving badly.
Some MPs have also called for the magazine to withdraw its controversial Spring 2009 edition because it was done using public money.
However, the charity's chief executive defended the cartoon and said the boy's cross is not meant to be a religious symbol but simply "bling." She also noted that she is a Christian and is sorry that the cartoon upset some people. She clarified that it was meant to be about bullying and not discrimination or religion.
