Iran summons French envoy following Macron’s Islamophobic comments

On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned France’s charge d’affaires Florent Aydalot because of President Macron’s Islamophobic comments.

The deputy director-general for the European Affairs of the Foreign Ministry strongly decried the remarks of the French authorities,m describing them as unacceptable, adding that the remarks have hurt the feelings of millions of Muslims in Europe and all across the world.

“Any insult and disrespect to the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) and the pure values of Islam are strongly condemned and rejected by every person and in every position,” he stated.

“It is deeply regrettable to incite Islamophobia and the spread of hatred in the name of freedom of expression, which should serve communication, empathy and peaceful coexistence between human societies,” he noted.

And In response, the French envoy made a promise to reflect Iran’s strong objection to the Paris government as soon as possible.

On Wednesday, Macron showed adamant support for a French teacher’s display of cartoons insulting the Prophet of Islam in his class.

“France will never renounce caricatures,” Macron stated, defending the teacher for “promoting freedom”.

The teacher, Samuel Paty, was killed by an 18-year-old Chechen assailant. Commenting on the attack, Macron referred to Islam as a religion “in crisis” all over the world in an attempt to suggest that the assailant had been motivated to kill the teacher by the faith instead of radicalism.

Macron insisted on his position once again this past Sunday by tweeting, “We will not give in, ever.”

The remarks drew a wave of condemnation all over the Muslim world.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif censured Macron’s comments, stating that Muslims are the primary victims of the “cult of hatred”.

“Muslims are the primary victims of the ‘cult of hatred’—empowered by colonial regimes & exported by their own clients,” Zarif announced via Twitter on Monday.

“Insulting 1.9B Muslims—& their sanctities—for the abhorrent crimes of such extremists is an opportunistic abuse of freedom of speech,” he stated, noting that, “It only fuels extremism.”

Additionally, Iran’s parliament strongly decried Macron’s defense of blasphemous remarks directed at Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) under the guise of “freedom of speech.”

In an official statement on Monday, the lawmakers, shunning acts of sacrilege against Islam, announced that the French government “once again proved its evil nature.”

They stated that “enmity on the part of non-believers towards Islam’s illuminating messages goes back long in history,” adding those seeking to attack divine prophets would usually resort to the “threadbare method of mockery”.

The MPs said rather than advancing “freedom of speech,” showing support for such acts of sacrilege amounted to “the biggest instance of oppression against freedom” and profanity against the sanctities of over one billion Muslims all over the world.

The Iranian legislators, meanwhile, stated that Macron was actually “extremely alarmed” at the rapid pace of gravitation towards Islam taking place in France.

“His (Macron’s) effrontery and insolence is part of a bigger plan that seeks to slow down the expeditious trend of the French people’s attraction towards Islam,” the statement noted.

The statement, nevertheless, assured that “Macron and his cohorts would soon come to face the practical result of this policy,” and said that the world’s Muslims would stand up to attempts at normalizing such obvious insults against Islam and its Prophet.

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