French Magazine’s Insulting Move Part of Islamophobia Project: Iranian Diplomat
Speaking to IQNA, Mohsen Pakayin, Iran’s former ambassador to the Republic of Azerbaijan, said the insulting move also signifies the West’s anger at the prominent role of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution in guiding Islamic movements against unilateralism, global arrogance and Zionism.
The French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo has published several insulting cartoons of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei after the controversial right-wing magazine had in early December announced a competition for such cartoons.
In a statement on Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Tehran holds the French government responsible for the uncultured, inhumane move by the notorious French weekly.
The ministry also said it would review France’s cultural activities in Iran, and that it was “ending the activities of the French Institute for Research in Iran as a first step.”
A day earlier, the Iranian Foreign Ministry had summoned the French Ambassador in Tehran, Nicolas Roche, to protest the act of anti-Muslim bigotry.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian also strongly condemned the “insulting” act and promised a “decisive” response.
In his interview with IQNA, Pakayin said Charlie Hebdo is run with support from the Zionist lobby and the Israeli regime’s elements in France,
He said most French people consider the weekly as a security threat to themselves and to France.
“The majority of the country’s people believe that the magazine’s insults to Islamic and Christian sanctities lead to formation of some kind of Islamic and Christian radicalism that set the grounds for security and economic problems for them and that is why the French people do not have a positive view about the publication.”
Pakayin added that the recent insulting move by Charlie Hebdo should be viewed within the framework of a massive Islamophobia project and the hidden confrontation of liberal democracy with the Islamic civilization.
He said such attempts are aimed at fostering secularism to prevent the spread of Islam but they have failed and this is what the West has acknowledged times and again.
As for the Western media’s concentration on tarnishing the image of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, he said such onslaughts shows the prominent role that Ayatollah Khamenei plays in guiding Islamic movements against unilateralism, global arrogance and Zionism.
The Iranian diplomat went on to say that the Leader of the Islamic Revolution has also introduced the new Islamic civilization as a serious rival to the waning Western civilization and its liberal democracy and that is one reason for so many onslaughts and attacks.
However, Pakayin said, such attacks will get nowhere and his popularity grows in the world day after day.
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