Instagram Blocks Imam Khamenei’s Account

By Staff, Agencies

Instagram has blocked the French account of Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei, following his message about Islamophobic campaign in France.

The new French language account of the Leader’s website has now been launched at the address instagram.com/fr.khamenei.ir to replace the blocked page.

The previous account was blocked after it published the Leader’s short message on Wednesday addressing the youth in France.

In his message, which was also published in various other social media sites, the Leader suggested the young French people ask their President, Emmanuel Macron, why he supports insulting God’s Messenger and calls it “freedom of expression”, but raising doubts about the Holocaust is a crime and anyone writing about such doubts will be imprisoned.

“Does freedom of expression mean insulting, especially a sacred personage?” Imam Khamenei asked. “Isn’t this stupid act an insult to the reason of the people who elected him?”

Last Wednesday, Macron supported a French teacher’s displaying of cartoons insulting Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] in his class. “France will never renounce caricatures,” Macron declared, defending the teacher for “promoting freedom”.

The teacher, Samuel Paty, was murdered by an 18-year-old Chechen assailant. Commenting on the attack, Macron described Islam as a religion “in crisis” worldwide, trying to suggest that the assailant had been motivated to kill the teacher by the faith rather than radicalism.

Macron insisted on his position again on Sunday by tweeting, “We will not give in, ever.”

Imam Khamenei called the French statesman’s insolence a “stupid act” that served to affront the reason of the very people, who have voted him to power.

The Leader, meanwhile, asked how come – from France’s perspective – questioning the Holocaust was “a crime” that warranted imprisonment, while insulting Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] could be condoned.

The French head of state’s effrontery opened the floodgates of backlash from Muslims around the world, with numerous Muslim states and peoples issuing condemnatory statements against Macron or rising in thousands-strong protests. Many Muslim companies and associations have also boycotted French items in protest.

Amid the global outrage over Macron’s provocative and insulting remarks and stances, the French city of Nice became the scene of a deadly knife attack on Thursday, in which three people, including a woman, were killed. Macron has described the incident as an "Islamic terrorist attack".

Hours later, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to his official Twitter page, strongly condemning the terrorist attack in Nice.

He wrote, “This escalating vicious cycle – hate speech, provocations & violence – must be replaced by reason & sanity”.

Instagram’s move to block the French account of Iran’s Leader is not the first example of the way Western governments and organizations practice freedom of speech and expression.

In late March, Twitter blocked the accounts used by Imam Khamenei before reinstating only two of the channels of communication.

The accounts would repeatedly post content promoting integrity among the world’s Muslims in the face of divisive measures by the world’s arrogant powers, including the United States, and entities such as the “Israeli” entity, which enjoy Washington’s unreserved support.

The channels would also relay caution about unjust actions against the Muslim faithful at the hands of domestic or foreign oppressive forces, including those backed by the US.

Also in late September, Twitter suspended the account of the Spanish-language Hispan TV, which is a news channel operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting [IRIB]. Its blockage raises the possibility that it has been added to the black list of the American online micro-blogging and social networking service.

Twitter has already suspended the Persian-language accounts of some Iranian news agencies as well as accounts of Press TV, the English-language channel based in Tehran.

American social media giants often target Iranian media outlets.

Google earlier targeted Press TV, blocking access to its official YouTube account of the international news network, citing "violations of export laws."

The move came almost a year after the US tech giant shut down YouTube and Gmail accounts of both Press TV and Hispan TV without any prior notice.

Over the past years, Google has recurrently been opting for such measures against Iranian media outlets. It has taken on Press TV more than any other Iranian outlet given the expanse of its viewership and readership.

Iran’s Press TV was targeted in April last year, when Google similarly shut its YouTube and Gmail accounts.

The previous attack also denied the networks any advance notification, sufficing to cite a nebulous “violation of policies.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting – which runs Press TV and Hispan TV as part of its World Service – has called such attacks clear examples of censorship.

Such attacks on the freedom of speech seem to be part of an anti-Iran policy pursued by US President Donald Trump since taking office.