Iran-Backed Hizbullah Condemns Anti-Khamenei Cartoons in French Magazine

Iran-backed Hizbullah in Lebanon came out on Tuesday with a condemnation of cartoons skewering Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei published in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and called on France to punish the magazine. “The French government … should not be a partner in this offense,” Hizbullah said in its statement. Many Hizbullah members also consider Khamenei to be their religious leader. The Khamenei caricatures published a week ago, the winners of a recent cartoon contest to draw the most offensive caricatures of Khamenei, are meant to be a show of support for the ongoing antigovernment protests in Iran sparked by the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman while in the custody of the modesty police after being detained for wearing her hijab incorrectly. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi had previously condemned the publication of the cartoons, calling them an “insult and offense under the pretext of freedom.” Charlie Hebdo has been publishing cartoons that make fun of Islamists that are insulting to Muslims, especially images of the Prophet Muhammed, for decades. Twelve of its staff members were killed in 2015 when two French members of al-Qaida launched an attack on the magazine’s office in Paris, following the publication of such cartoons.