Hawzah News Agency - Bahrain’s top Shia cleric Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim denounced French President Emmanuel Macron’s outrageous anti-Islam remarks, calling on Muslim nations not to remain silent in the face of even the slightest insult to Islam’s Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

In a statement published on Bahrain's Al-Muqawim website, Sheikh Qassim said disrespecting Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is equal to insulting all other holy prophets.

Macron has been facing a growing backlash in the Islamic world over defending offensive caricatures of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and ordering a crackdown on Islam and its followers in the European country.

Earlier this month, French history teacher Samuel Paty provoked outrage by showing to his students the blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) published by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. He was murdered outside his school in a Paris suburb on October 16 by an 18-year-old assailant, identified as Chechen Abdullakh Anzorov, who was shot dead by police soon after the killing.

Macron characterized the incident as an “Islamist terrorist attack”. In a tribute to the slain teacher, Macron described him as a “quiet hero” and posthumously awarded him the Légion d'Honneur, the country’s highest civilian honor.

He also vowed his country would not “give up cartoons” depicting Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), claiming that the teacher was killed by “cowards” for representing the secular, democratic values of the French Republic.

Sheikh Qassim further noted that a “widespread and effective boycott of French goods does not constitute a declaration of hostility to France and its people. It is just a response to President Emmanuel Macron” for his insult to Islam’s Prophet.

Macron turned a blind eye to humanity, the interests of his country and the responsibility to maintain global peace, he added.

The Bahraini cleric called on Muslim nations to take a serious and honest stance against the French president’s insult to the greatest prophet of God (PBUH).

A Muslim nation seeks to maintain security and peace in the world more than any other nation, but at the same time, it holds nothing dearer than Islam, the Holy Qur’an, the Prophet of Islam and its sanctities, said Sheikh Qassem, adding, that is why silence in the face of the slightest insult to the holy Prophet (PBUH) is not permissible.

Macron’s comments followed by republications of the offensive cartoons in France have triggered a wave of protests and boycott calls in several Muslim nations across Asia and Africa.