It was predictable.
In the aftermath of protests in neighboring Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemned the republication of the cartoons of Muhammad by the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, denouncing "a provocation and an insult" against Muslims of the whole world.
VIDEO: Front page of Charlie Hebdo: first protest protest in Pakistan
“The offensive act of the French publication […] is a provocation”, indicates a statement from the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, published overnight from Thursday to Friday.
Iran also sees it as "an insult to Islamic values and to the faith of more than a billion Muslims in the world," the statement said.
Ridiculing or insulting Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, is punishable by death in Iran.
An "insult" to Muslims
The trial of the jihadist attacks against Charlie Hebdo, police officers and a Jewish convenience store in January 2015, opened Wednesday in Paris.
The attacks killed 17 people in three days.
To mark the opening of this trial, Charlie Hebdo brought back the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, who had made the satirical weekly a target of the jihadists.
Iran had condemned in January 2015 the attack against Charlie Hebdo, judging however that these drawings were an "insult" against Muslims and had denounced an "abuse" of freedom of expression.
"Any insult or lack of respect towards the holy prophet of Islam [...] and the other divine prophets
(Editor's note: the sacred figures of Judaism and Christianity recognized as prophets by Islam)
are absolutely unacceptable", adds the press release .
The ministry also called for using freedom of expression “constructively for the peaceful coexistence of humanity” and “for better understanding between religions”.
Iran appears in 173rd place (out of 180 countries) in the latest edition of the world press freedom ranking established by the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
