Parliament Speaker: Muslim States Calling for Resolute Action against Sacrilege of Islamic Sanctities

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani strongly condemned the French weekly, Charlie Hebdo, for publishing a cartoon of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), and said that the message of the Inter-Parliamentary Union of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was resolute confrontation with such insults to Islamic sanctities.
“The stances of the countries participating in the OIC Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting focused on taking resolute action against insults to Prophet Mohammad (PBUH),” Larijani said upon his return from Turkey in Tehran’s International Mehrabad Airport on Friday.

Larijani condemned the publication of the blasphemous cartoon of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), and said, “Some circles in the West seek to promote Isamophobia.”

“Insulting the Prophet of Islam is a shame for the West as insulting and blasphemy is a crime,” the Iranian parliament speaker added.

On Monday, thousands of Iranian protestors staging a rally in front of the French embassy in Tehran demanded expulsion of French Ambassador Bruno Foucher from Iran as a firm response to the sacrilegious cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo weekly magazine of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

A large number of Iranian university students and people, in a protest sit-in in front of the French embassy in Tehran on Monday, expressed their anger over the blasphemous cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) published in the French weekly.

The protestors chanted different mottoes against the West’s insults to Islam, and demanded expulsion of those who support or whose country is responsible for such provocative moves from Iran.

“We ask the Iranian President (Hassan Rouhani) to show an appropriate reaction and force the foreign ministry to expel the French ambassador (from Iran),” the protesters said in a final statement issued at the end of the sit-in.

The protestors carried placards to show indignation at the insult to Islam. They also chanted “Death to the US”, “Death to Israel” and “Death to Britain” slogans, implying that they are the real masterminds of Charlie Hebdo’s sacrilegious act.

The gathering was staged after the French satirical magazine once again published a sacrilegious cartoon of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), only a week after gunmen murdered eight journalists and four others at its offices in Paris.

The move has hurt the sentiments of over a billion Muslims throughout the world and caused angry protests in many world states.

The Iranian foreign ministry on Wednesday deplored the publication of the blasphemous Cartoon, describing it as a “provocative” and “insulting” move.

“We condemn provocative moves and in our view, the weekly’s action is insulting and we condemn it completely since it will provoke and hurt Muslims’ feelings across the world and will create a sequence of extremism in the world,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said in Tehran.

She stressed that respecting the beliefs, values and sanctities of different religions was a globally accepted principle and European statesmen are expected to heed such norms.

Afkham underscored that it was not enough for the western governments to admit to their wrong policies, and they needed to adopt correct decisions which serve the interests of the followers of all religions and nations.

Earlier this month, the ISIL terrorist group attacked the weekly after it released a cartoon of ISIL leader Abu Bakr Al-Baqdadi. At least 12 people were killed when masked gunmen stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo and opened fire.

Iranian officials condemned the attack, but warned that the incident should not be used as a pretext for accusing Islam or pressuring the Muslim community in the West, reminding that ISIL is not an Islamic group.

The same day, Afkham condemned the attack, and said any act of terrorism against innocent people is opposed to Islamic teachings.