Saudi Arabia denounces Prophet cartoons and denies efforts to link Islam to terrorism

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted what an official source from the Kingdom’s foreign ministry said that Saudi Arabia denounces any cartoons insulting the Prophet Mohammed and refuses any tries to link Islam with terrorism.

The source said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia rejects any attempts to link Islam with terrorism and condemns the offensive cartoons of the Prophet of Guidance and the Messenger of Peace Mohammed bin Abdullah, may God bless him and grant him peace or any of the messengers, and peace is upon them.

The source added, according to SPA, that Saudi Arabia denounces all terrorist assaults and those responsible for them and denies all practices and actions that provoke hostility and violence.

The statement reported: Freedom of expression and culture should be a beacon of respect, tolerance and peace that rejects practices and acts which generate hatred, violence and extremism and are contrary to coexistence.

This statement appears in the presence of a raise debate after the killing of a French teacher who had exposed cartoons of the Prophet during a class over free speech.

On his part, French President Emmanuel Macron described the murder as an Islamist terrorist attack and said in a tweet in Arabic this week that France would not give in and would not accept hate speech and defend reasonable debate.

In this context, many Arab countries, including Kuwait and Jordan, demanded their citizens to boycott French products because of the use of Prophet Mohammed in French cartoons, and retail co-ops in Kuwait removing French products from their shelves.

Furthermore, social media users in the Kingdom also called on Sunday to boycott of French supermarket retailer Carrefour. Whereas the foreign ministry source did not indicates the calls for boycotting the products.

The Council of Senior Scholars, which is Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body, said earlier that insulting prophets just serves extremists who want to deploy hostility among societies.

The council declared in a statement reported by the Kingdom’s official Saudi Press Agency on Sunday: The duty of wise people all around the world… is to condemn such insults which have nothing to do with freedom of thought and expression and are nothing more than pure prejudice and a free service for extremists.