Charlie Hebdo slammed for publishing an offensive cartoon featuring Meghan and Queen Elizabeth II

Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine best known for its offensive cartoons, sparks a new wave of criticism.

The magazine received social media backlash after publishing an offensive cartoon featuring Meghan Markle and Queen Elizabeth II.

Hitting at the recent restrain of the relationship between Megan and the British Royal family, the magazine cover features Queen Elizabeth pressing her knee against Meghan Markle’s neck, with the caption reading: “Why Meghan left Buckingham.”

Markle, the Duchess of Sussex and the wife of Prince Harry is seen lying on the ground saying: “Because I couldn’t breathe anymore.”

Several social media users have slammed the publication as racist and distasteful for portraying Meghan Markel as George Floyd, the Black American, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer last year in May.

The cartoon comes days after Markle and Harry’s appearance in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Megan in the bombshell interview had accused the British press as well as the royal family of racism.

Meghan, a biracial American actor, revealed during the interview that when she was pregnant with her son Archie, a member of the royal family expressed “concerns…about how dark his skin might be”.

Dr. Halima Begum, CEO of the Runnymede Trust, a UK-based racial equality think-tank, took to Twitter calling out the cover was “wrong on every level”.

Another social media user said, Is this the free speech that Charlie Hebdo is so passionate about? Racism, disrespect, and offense passed off as satire? I’m sorry but no Je suis for me. This is nothing but racist bigotry and inciting hate. Do better with your platform.”

Social media on Sunday is buzzing with the latest Charlie Hebdo controversy. It seems like the west has come to taste its own medicine in the name of freedom of speech.

The magazine is habitual of offending religions, in past, it drew massive criticism from the Muslim world for publishing offensive caricatures and disrespecting Holy Prophet.

In 2015, 11 people, including the top editor and some of its leading cartoonists, were killed after Charlie Hebdo’s Paris headquarters was attacked by two brothers named Said and Cherif Kouachi for publishing controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUM).