Union of Scholars of the Levant: Insulting religious beliefs and symbols is not enlisted under freedom of opinion and expression

The Union of Levant Scholars condemned the recent stances and statements made by French President Emmanuel Macron and other politicians, journalists, and pretenders of thought and enlightenment in the West under booming names and slogans such as freedom of opinion and belief and  freedom of the press and intellectual creativity.

In a statement, the Union affirmed that insulting religious beliefs, sanctities and symbols is not enlisted under freedom of opinion and expression, but rather is a blatant violation of all moral and human principles and values, noting that the punishment for murder crimes is in the application of laws and not by offending the feelings of Muslims.

The Union referred to what the United States, France and other Western countries are doing to shed light on some specific crimes in order to use them to distort the image of Islam. The world will not forget the heinous crimes that they have carried out in their black history which is full of the ugliest forms of murder, terrorism, plundering wealth, and destroying civilization and heritage of the countries they occupied.

In its statement, the Union of Levant Scholars called on all the wise and fair people in the world to come together to stop such offenses, calling on everyone who brags day and night about the freedom of belief, opinion, press and media, and fabricates one argument after another for attacking Islam to stop this extremist approach that supports terrorism instead of combating it and giving an opportunity for criminals, takfiries and pretenders to distort the truth of the religion of mercy, goodness and humanity.

Macron had defended the “Charlie Hebdo” newspaper reprinting offensive caricatures of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, claiming that this matter came within the framework of freedom of expression.

Inas Abdulkareem