Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that disrespecting Holy Prophet Muhammad is not freedom of speech. He said that insults to the Prophet are a “violation of religious freedom and the violation of the sacred feelings of people who profess Islam.”
Putin expressed his views on Thursday during an annual conference. The Russian president said that such acts incite incidents of retaliation such as the attack on the editorial office of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris in reaction to the disrespectful cartoons published on Holy Prophet in the magazine.
Putin vouched for artistic freedom in general but also called to discern its limits and that it should not attack the freedom of other communities.
Insulting Prophet Muhammad doesn’t count as expression of artistic freedom, says Russian President Vladimir Putin https://t.co/1D6FwvhhR6
— TRT World (@trtworld) December 24, 2021
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The Russian president said that since Russia is evolved as a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society, so Russians are in the tradition of respecting other cultures and religions. However, this respect comes in short supply in other countries, remarked Vladimir Putin.
Disrespecting Holy Prophet causes emotional stress
Earlier, in June, British Parliamentarian, Naz Shah, had taken up the issue of the sanctity of the Holy Prophet Muhammad in her impassioned speech in the Parliament. Shah said that people’s disrespect of the Holy Prophet Muhammad through cartoons causes emotional stress to the global Muslim community.
In her speech, she posits the sensitivity of Britons to Winston Churchill and Oliver Cromwell to elaborate the emotional sensitivity and deep reverence of Muslims for the Holy Prophet. Adding that cartoons and caricatures of the Holy Prophet Muhammad produced in the European countries hurt the Muslims all around the world.
Prime Minister Imran Khan had also called out the extremists in the west to apologize for disrespecting the Holy Prophet Muhammad.
“Let me make clear to people here & abroad: Our govt only took action against TLP under our anti-terrorist law when they challenged the writ of the state and used street violence & attacking [sic] the public & law enforcers. No one can be above the law and the Constitution,” PM Imran Khan said in his first direct statement on the matter in April this year.
The prime minister, in his statement, also criticized elements worldwide who he said indulge in Islamophobia and racist slurs “under the guise of freedom of speech” to hurt and cause pain to the 1.3 billion Muslims across the globe.
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“We Muslims have the greatest love & respect for our Prophet PBUH who lives in our hearts. We cannot tolerate any such disrespect & abuse,” said PM Imran Khan in his tweet.