France responded to threats from the Iranian regime over Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons on Ali Khamenei

The French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonnaclaimed today the freedom of the press What is there in Franceand not in Iran, before the protests of the Tehran regime for the contest of cartoons which has launched the satirical magazine charlie hebdo to ridicule the Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.

Asked about these criticisms from the Iranian authorities, who this Wednesday called the French ambassador in Tehran to express his discontent by the initiative of Charlie Hebdo and tell him that they hold the French government responsible for the consequences that this has, Colonna stressed that “In France there is freedom of the press, contrary to what happens in Iran”.

The minister added that this freedom is exercised under the control of an “independent” Justice. In other words, it does not respond to the indications of the Executive of which it is a part.

In addition, he recalled that in France there is no crime of blasphemywhich means that religious principles and symbols can be criticized and ridiculed.

For all this, he pointed out that “it would be reasonable” to take into account the legal framework in which the initiative of the satirical magazine has developed, which on December 8 launched a call for a cartoon contest by Ali Khamenei to “support” “the Iranians who fight for their freedom” plaster “ridiculing this religious leader from another era”.

In recent weeks, Charlie Hebdo reports on its website that it has received more than 300 drawings, several of which have been published online, “as well as thousands of threats”.

In its usual tone, the French publication – which in January 2015 was the victim of a jihadist attack in his newsroom in Paris in which 12 people were killed and a dozen were injured – ironically about the fact that “all participants have earned their place in hell.”

The satirical magazine announced on December 8 a “international competition to produce caricatures of the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran”whom he described as “a symbol of the backward thinking, narrow-mindedness and intolerance of religious power”.

In this sense, he asked cartoonists to “support iranians who are fighting for freedom ridiculing their religious leader from another era and consigning him to historical oblivion.” “Ayatollah (Ruhollah) Khomeini’s political ambition to create an Islamic Republic has come to an end, demonstrating the absurdity of trying to run a modern society with religious precepts,” he said.

For this reason, Charlie Hebdo pointed out that “the freedom to which all human beings aspire is incompatible with the archaic of religious thought and the submission to all supposedly spiritual authority, of which Khamenei is the most deplorable example”.

(With information from EFE and Europa Press)

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