Putin: Disrespecting the Prophet Mohammed is Not Freedom of Expression

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By Abdulla Gaafarelkhalifa

On December 23, 2021, in an annual news conference held in Moscow, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said disrespecting the Prophet Mohammed is not freedom of expression. Insults against the Prophet Muhammad are a "violation of religious freedom and the violation of the sacred feelings of people who profess Islam."

In the conference, he cited the attack on the editorial office of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, which was a reaction to the cartoons published of the Prophet Mohammed in the magazine back in 2015.

Putin received praise for his statements from Pakistani PM, Imran Khan, stating “I welcome President Putin's statement which reaffirms my message that insulting our Holy Prophet PBUH is not "freedom of expression". We Muslims, especially Muslim leaders, must spread this message to leaders of the non-Muslim world to counter Islamophobia.”

The exchange between the two world leaders does come at an interesting time; just weeks prior, on December 2, Pakistani National Security Adviser, Dr Moeed Yusuf, led a delegation to Moscow, at the invitation of his Russian counterpart, where they discussed several topics centering on Pakistan. The topics regarded economic ties with Central Asian states, security after Afghanistan's Taliban takeover, and the role of Russia to improve regional connectivity and economic integration. More notably, Islamabad and Moscow signed a preliminary $2.5 billion agreement to build the 1,100-km-long gas pipeline between Karachi and Gwadar. The project is expected to be completed by 2023.

This is not the first time that the Russian PM criticised the magazine for the same cartoons. In 2006, Putin stated the cartoons were an inadmissible provocation.

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