Rouhani: ‘Insulting the Prophet is insulting all Muslims’

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has denounced France’s treatment of Islam, adding that Western support for cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad is unethical and insulting to Muslims.

In a televised cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the president said freedom must be accompanied by a respect for values and consideration of ethics.

“Westerners must understand the great Prophet of Islam is loved by all Muslims and freedom-lovers of the world,” Rouhani said.

“Insulting the Prophet is insulting all Muslims. Insulting the Prophet is insulting all prophets, human values, and amounts to undermining ethics.”

The Prophet is deeply revered by Muslims and any kind of visual depiction of him is forbidden in Islam. The French caricatures in question are seen by Muslims as offensive and Islamophobic because they are perceived to link Islam with terrorism.

The images are regularly published by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. They were cited as the reason behind a deadly attack launched on the magazine’s offices in early 2015 by two al-Qaeda-linked fighters.

On October 16 this year, French teacher Samuel Paty was murdered in broad daylight near his school in a suburb of Paris after he showed the caricatures to his students as part of a discussion on freedom of expression.

Muslim leaders offered their condolences and support to France after the killing. However, since then, there have been rising concerns that Muslim communities in France would suffer collective punishment as the authorities roll out their response to the killing of Paty.

French and European leaders have come out in support for the right to display the caricatures, citing freedom of expression.

“We will not give in, ever,” Macron wrote in a series of tweets on Sunday evening in French, Arabic and English. “We respect all differences in a spirit of peace. We do not accept hate speech and defend reasonable debate. We will always be on the idea of human dignity and universal values.”

This support, as well as comments by French President Emmanuel Macron, who on October 2 said Islam was in “crisis”, have prompted a backlash by Muslims around the world.

(Courtesy: Aljazeera)