Insulting Muslims is an abuse of free speech, Iran's Zarif says
Insulting Muslims is an “opportunistic” abuse of free speech, Iran’s foreign minister said on Monday, in an apparent reference to remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron's Islamophobic comments and publication of blasphemous sketches.
“Muslims are the primary victims of the ‘cult of hatred’,” the minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, tweeted, without directly addressing Macron.
“Insulting 1.9B Muslims—& their sanctities—for the abhorrent crimes of such extremists is an opportunistic abuse of freedom of speech. It only fuels extremism,” he added.
Earlier this month, schoolteacher Samuel Paty, was beheaded by an 18-year-old man for showing blasphemous cartoons to his students in the name of “freedom of expression”. The 18-year-old was subsequently killed by the French police.
Responding to the teacher's killing, French President Macron had said that “Islam as a religion is in crisis all over the world, schools will be closely monitored and control over incoming foreign funding to mosques will be further improved.”
Unlike some Muslim countries, Iran’s clerical rulers have not called for a boycott of French goods. But several Iranian officials and politicians, including the heads of parliament and the judiciary, have condemned Macron for “Islamophobia”, according to Iranian state media.
Ali Shamkhani, a close ally of Iran’s top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Macron’s “irrational behaviour” displayed his “crudeness in politics”.
“Otherwise he would not have dared to embrace Islam in his quest for leadership in #Europe,” tweeted Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National security Council.
“I suggest that he read more history and not rejoice in the support of a declining America & #Zionism.”
Several Muslim countries condemned Macron’s statement and called for a boycott of French products, whereas Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “What problem does the French president have with Muslims and Islam? He needs mental treatment."