France, freest country
for anti‐Islamic sentiment

Hadi Borhani, a professor at the University of Tehran referred to the recent offensive comments of France President, Emanuel Macron against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), saying there is a high level of freedom of speech in almost all Western countries, but the value of freedom of speech, in some cases, is against other modern values like security, human rights or even democracy.

“France is one of those Western countries where is considered as the birthplace of many modern values, and there is a high level of the freedom of speech in this country as well; however, this right is not unlimited,” he added.
 
He then said that “base on this viewpoint, France claims that publishing offensive cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is legal in the French constitution. So French people are free to express their thoughts about religions or religious values regardless of their offensive aspects.”
 
The university professor stressed the double standard of the French government towards the freedom of speech.
 
“The position of the French government is not compatible with their definition of freedom of speech. While they support any critique against Islam or Islamic values. they behave in a completely different way when it comes to Jewish or Jewish values,” Borhani noted.
 
“We can say that France is the freest country in insulting against Islamic values or anti-Islam practices, while it punishes any insult against Judaism or Jewish values,” he said.