Saudis condemn Mohammed caricatures – also terrorism

While the French president’s call to fight Islamist radicals drew boycott calls across the Muslim world, Saudi Arabia stepped into the furor with a more moderate response: Riyadh condemned “the republication of offensive caricatures of Prophet Muhammad” but also condemned “any terrorist act regardless of its perpetrator.” Last week, a student beheaded a teacher outside their school in France for exhibiting the published caricatures in a lesson on freedom of speech. President Emmanuel Macron reacted with a vow to promote secularism.

The Kingdom’s response was a call for “intellectual and cultural freedom to promote respect, tolerance and peace.”