Lebanon`s Hezbollah leader condemned cartoons by French Charlie Hebdo magazine

RELIGIONS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) – Hassan Nasrullah, the senior leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, condemned cartoons published recently by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

AP reported the cartoons mocked Iran’s ruling clerics.

Hassan Nasrullah urged France to punish the publication.

The  Hezbollah said the offensive caricatures were an “ugly act by the magazine” that targeted Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, revered as the spiritual leader for tens of millions of pious Shiites throughout the world, including in Lebanon.

There was no immediate comment from France.

Charlie Hebdo has a long history of publishing vulgar cartoons mocking Islamists, which critics say are deeply insulting to Muslims.

Two French-born al-Qaida extremists attacked the newspaper’s office in 2015, killing 12 cartoonists, and it has been the target of other attacks over the years.

“We call upon the French government to take decisive measures to punish those behind the act for attacking dignitaries of a whole nation,” Hezbollah said in a statement. “The French government … should not be a partner in this offense.”

Members of Hezbollah, a Shiite group, also consider Khamenei as their religious leader.

Charlie Hebdo, which has published similarly offensive cartoons about dead child migrants, virus victims, neo-Nazis, popes, Jewish leaders and other public figures, presents itself as an advocate for democracy and free expression. But it routinely pushes the limits of French hate speech laws with often sexually explicit caricatures that target nearly everyone.