What's the difference between Holocaust denial and satirical caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad?
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pondered this exact question on Wednesday, putting to the test Twitter's two-week-old policy of removing posts that include Holocaust denial.
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Following the re-publication of caricatures displaying the Prophet Muhammed by French magazine Charlie Hebdo – in turn, sparking renewed outrage throughout the Muslim world – Khamenei took to Twitter, equating insults against the prophet to Holocaust denial.
"Young French people! Ask your president why he supports insulting God's messenger in the name of freedom of expression. Does freedom of expression mean insulting, especially a sacred personage? Isn't this stupid act an insult to the reason of the [people]l who elected him?," the Iranian leader tweeted.
He went on: "The next question to ask is: why is it a crime to raise doubts about the Holocaust? Why should anyone who writes about such doubts be imprisoned while insulting the prophet is allowed?" the Iranian leader tweeted.
Khamenei was referring to laws in certain countries, Germany for example, which forbid Holocaust denial.
Twitter and its founder and CEO Jack Dorsey have come under fire on more than a few occasions over its alleged discriminatory banning and flagging policies.
On Aug. 1, the White House slammed Twitter for allowing Khamenei tweets to go uncensored while deleting US President Donald Trump's tweets.
"It's really appalling and it just speaks to their overwhelming, blinding bias against conservatives and against this president," Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters at the time.
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It remains to be seen if Khamenei's tweet will continue to go uncensored.
On Tuesday, France warned its citizens in several Muslim-majority countries to take extra security precautions as anger has surged over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, while the head of Russia's Chechnya region said Paris was pushing people towards terrorism.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
