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Iran’s Khamenei says Mohammed cartoons ‘unforgivable’
TEHRAN, Sept 8, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, said Tuesday that cartoons of the prophet Mohammed that were
republished by a French satirical magazine last week were “unforgivable”.
“The grave and unforgivable sin committed by a French weekly in insulting
the luminous and holy personality of (the) Prophet revealed, once more, the
hostility and malicious grudge harboured by political and cultural
organisations in the West against Islam and the Muslim community,” Khamenei
said in an English-language statement.
“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.”
During a visit to Beirut last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said
Charlie Hebdo had broken no law in republishing the cartoons to mark the
September 2 opening of the trial into a deadly 2015 attack on its offices by
Islamist extremists.
“There is… in France a freedom to blaspheme that is linked to freedom of
conscience,” Macron said.
“It is my job to protect all these freedoms.”
Twelve people, including some of France’s most celebrated cartoonists,
were killed on January 7, 2015, when brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi went on
a gun rampage at the magazine’s Paris offices.
The perpetrators were killed in the aftermath of the massacre but 14
alleged accomplices in the attacks, which also targeted a Jewish supermarket,
went on trial.
Despite its outrage at the cartoons, Iran condemned the attack on the
paper’s offices.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1652 hrs