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The statement comes amid a controversy over the use of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in French school classes about freedom of expression which his teacher then taught beheaded by an ethnic Chechen teenager. French President Emmanuel Macron called the killings an “Islamic terrorist” attack. (Read: Hamas: Cartoon Publication of Prophet Muhammad by France Provocative Action!)
The current President of the Saudi Arabian Council of Senior Scholars is Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Sheikh. He is also the Grand Mufti of the country.
“The duty of wise men around the world is to condemn such insults that have nothing to do with freedom of thought and expression and are nothing more than pure prejudice and free services to extremists,” the council said in a statement. SPA, Monday (26/10/2020).
The council highlighted that Islam prohibits any form of insulting any prophet of God. (Read: Teacher Beheaded for Cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad Trigger Big Demonstrations in France)
French President Emmanuel Macron has criticized those he calls “Islamists” and defended publishing cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Cartoons are magazines Charlie Hebdo which triggered the massacre at the magazine’s editorial office in 2015.
Macron’s defense comes after a teacher in France was beheaded last week near Paris after he showed him cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a class discussion on free speech and expression. Macron said the murdered teacher was the victim of an “Islamic terrorist” attack.
“We will not give up on cartoons,” Macron said at a ceremony honoring teachers who were beheaded last week. “He was killed because the Islamists wanted our future,” he said, swearing; “They will never have it.” (Read: Teacher Beheaded for Cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, French Imam: We are Sorry)
The incident has sparked debate about respecting religion and prompted many leaders in the Islamic world to condemn the crime but emphasize the importance of respecting the prophets.
Al-Azhar’s high priest, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, in a speech last Tuesday condemned the beheading of a teacher in France. However, he said insulting religion in the name of free speech was “an invitation to hate”.
Sheikh al-Tayeb’s speech was read in Rome’s Capitol Square at a meeting of Christian, Jewish and Buddhist leaders including Pope Francis and French Chief Rabbi Haim Corsia.
“As a Muslim and Sheikh Al-Azhar, I declare that Islam, its teachings and the Prophet are innocent of these heinous terrorist crimes,” Tayeb said in his speech, referring to the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty. (Also read: Teacher Beheaded, France Will Expel 231 Radical Foreigners)
“At the same time, I emphasize that insulting religion and attacking their sacred symbols under the banner of freedom of expression is an intellectual double standard and an open invitation to hatred.”
Paty, 47, was attacked and killed by an 18-year-old Chechen boy on his way home from the first high school he taught in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, near Paris.
He has shown his students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which angered a student father who is leading an online campaign against the teacher. The student’s father was in contact with the murderer in the lead up to the attack on Paty.
The teacher’s killer, Abdullakh Anzorov, had posted a picture of the teacher’s decapitated body on Twitter before being shot dead by police.
“These terrorists do not speak for the religion of the Prophet Muhammad, just as terrorists in New Zealand who killed Muslims in mosques speak for the religion of Jesus,” al-Tayeb said in his speech.
French police have arrested 16 people, including a “radical Islamist” and four members of Anzorov’s family.
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