Saudi Arabia condemns 'offensive cartoons' as calls grow for French boycott
The kingdom "rejects any attempt to link Islam with terrorism," a Foreign Ministry source said.
Saudi Arabia is the latest Muslim country to denounce French President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial comments on Islam and depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia rejects any attempt to link Islam with terrorism, and condemns the offensive cartoons of the Prophet,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted an official Foreign Ministry source as saying.
Riyadh also called for “intellectual and cultural freedom to be a beacon of respect, tolerance and peace that rejects practices and acts which generate hatred, violence and extremism,” the statement said.
The controversy erupted last week when Macron spoke at the memorial service for a teacher killed after showing his classroom cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson on freedom of expression. French prosecutors say Samuel Paty was beheaded in broad daylight by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee who was later shot dead by police.
