Iran condemns France attack but criticizes cartoons

Iran condemned the killing of 12 people at a French satirical magazine on Wednesday, but reiterated its criticizm of the weekly’s 2006 publication of cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed.

“All acts of terrorism against innocent people are alien to the doctrine and teachings of Islam,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham told the official IRNA news agency.

She said attacks like that on Charlie Hebdo were part of a “wave of radicalism” that had spread around the world over the past decade, fanned in part by “poor policies and double standards in tackling violence and extremism.”

But she renewed Iranian criticism of the magazine’s decision to reprint 12 cartoons of Mohammed published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in a statement for freedom of expression.

The cartoons, including one which showed a turban as a bomb, prompted angry protests in Iran as well as other Muslim countries.

“Making use of freedom of expression… to humiliate the monotheistic religions and their values and symbols is unacceptable,” Afkham said.