The decision to republish cartoons featuring Prophet Muhammad has opened up a whole new can of worms for French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. After Islamists from several countries like France, Nigeria, Indonesia, Iran, Chechnya, Yemen and especially Pakistan have taken to the streets to agitate against the cartoons that depict Prophet Muhammad, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Tuesday called it an “unforgivable sin”.
The grave & unforgivable sin committed by a French weekly in insulting the luminous & holy personality of Prophet (pbuh) revealed, once more, the hostility & malicious grudge harbored by political & cultural organizations in the west against Islam & the Muslim community.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) September 8, 2020
Condemning the French Magazine’s decision on Twitter, Khamenei also criticised some French politicians, who he said were using the “excuse of freedom of expression to not criticise the grave crime of insulting the Holy Prophet of Islam”, which he said was “completely unacceptable and demagogic”.
The excuse of ‘freedom of expression’ made by some French politicians in order not to condemn this grave crime of insulting the Holy Prophet of Islam is completely unacceptable, wrong and demagogic.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) September 8, 2020
He continued that the anti-Islamic policies of zionists and arrogant powers’ are behind these hostile moves against Islam.
Zionists & arrogant powers’ anti-Islamic policies are behind such hostile moves emerging every now & then. This insult at this time can have another motive: to divert West Asian nations & states’ attention away from evil plots U.S. & Zionist regime are hatching for region.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) September 8, 2020
Expressing his anger, Khamenei opined that the Islamic nations – in particular West Asian countries – should never forget the hostilities of western politicians and leaders against Islam and Muslims.
‘Beheading is the punishment for blasphemers,’ Muslims in Pakistan launched a protest
Following the announcement, that had also prompted the 2015 terror attack in its Paris office, leading to widespread protests across the world, Pakistan had also witnessed protests by thousands of Muslims on September 4 (Friday) led by the hardline Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan party.
“Death to France” was chanted as protesters called for a boycott of French products. “Decapitation is the punishment of blasphemers,” one placard at the protests read. The protesters demanded that the French ambassador to the country be expelled.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron voiced his support for Charlie Hebdo
Earlier, Charlie Hebdo had announced that it will republish cartoons of prophet Mohammed that had caused Islamic Terrorists to launch a terror attack against them in 2015 as trial against the perpetrators gets underway. “We will never lie down. We will never give up,” its director Laurent “Riss” Sourisseau said in an editorial to be published along with the cartoons in the latest edition.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron had also spoken in support of the French satirical weekly saying that it had not broken any law by republishing the cartoons. “There is… in France freedom to blaspheme that is linked to freedom of conscience. It is my job to protect all these freedoms”, Macron said during a visit to Beirut last week.
