Iranian Foreign Minister: We Cannot Agree On Insulting Muslims As A Form Of Free Speech

JAKARTA - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke about the polemic of Islamic life in France. He highlighted the root of the problem: cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad as a form of free speech. He disagrees with that point of view.

Making cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad is an insult to Muslims, he said. And insult is the abuse of free speech itself.

Javad Zarif added that the statement was a clear indication of what French President Emmanuel Macron said was considered critical of Islam. "Muslims are the main victims of the 'cult of hatred'," he said in a Twitter tweet, quoted Tuesday, October 27.

"To insult 1.9 billion Muslims and their sanctity for such abhorrent crimes of extremists is the abuse of free speech. It only fuels extremism," he added.

Unlike some Muslim countries. Iran's clerical leaders have not called for a boycott of French goods. But several Iranian officials and politicians, including the head of parliament and the court, also condemned Macron for spreading Islamophobia.

Ali Shamkhani, a close ally of Iran's supreme authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Macron's "irrational behavior" demonstrated his "political rudeness."

"Otherwise, he would not have dared to embrace Islam in his quest for leadership in #European," tweeted Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

"I suggest that he read more history and not rejoice in supporting America and declining Zionism."

Earlier, Macron responded to Samuel Paty's beheading by saying he would redouble his efforts to stop conservative Islamic beliefs that subvert French values. Macron also explicitly gave space and support to the cartoon appearance of the Prophet Muhammad, which for Muslims is forbidden.

The roots of all the problems stemmed from an attack outside a French school on October 16. An 18-year-old man from Chechnya beheaded Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old history teacher.

The teacher had previously shown his students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a subject on free speech. The cartoon first appeared several years ago in the satire magazine Charlie Hebdo, whose offices are in Paris.