Iranians slam Charlie Hebdo's republication of Prophet's cartoons
Yusef Jalali
Press TV, Tehran
The closure of the French Embassy; this is what these angry students demand from Iran's government.
They held this rally to condemn French weekly Charlie Hebdo's republication of blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Muhammad; the same offensive sketches that were published by the magazine in 2015.
Charlie Hebdo reprinted the insulting sketches on the eve of the trial of suspects of a deadly attack on the paper’s Paris offices in 2015. The attack killed 12 people, 8 of them were among Charlie Hebdo's staff.
Following the incident, millions of people across the world took part in solidarity marches under the famous slogan, Je suis Charlie, or I am Charlie. Muslim countries also held similar rallies; something that conveys a strong message.
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would not condemn the republication of the defamatory cartoons. He said it's a matter of press freedom. Protesters here find the French president's remarks as double standards.
The protests came on the heels of Leader of Iran's Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei's comments on the sacrilegious cartoons, where he slammed the move as an open deception and a proof of the west's deeply rooted hostility toward Muslims.
The move of French weekly also sparked similar protests in other Muslim countries. The Muslims around the world condemned both the weekly and French President for their double standards when it comes to issues related to Islam and Muslims.
While France justifies the offensive anti-Islamic sketches as freedom of expression, protesters say France has mixed up the definition of press freedom with xenophobia, when it allows itself to harm the sentiments of millions of Muslims for what they are not responsible for.
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