An outspoken teenager has reignited a polarizing debate over free speech in France after an expletive-laden Instagram rant against Islam that has forced her to stay home from school due to safety fears.
The case of 16-year-old Mila — who has received a slew of death threats for calling Islam “a shitty religion” — comes a little more than five years after a group of French cartoonists from Charlie Hebdo magazine were gunned down gunmen after poking fun at the Prophet Mohammed.
French Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner on Tuesday announced that the teenager, whose full name has been withheld by French media, and her family had been put under police protection.
Right-wing politicians have accused the government of failing to show enough support for the teenager in the face of what they call “Islamist” threats over the past two weeks.
In a TV interview on Monday, Mila said that she did “not regret” her remarks and defended her right to “blaspheme.”
National Rally leader Marine Le Pen responded by tweeting: “This young girl is braver than the whole political class in power over the past 30 years.”
Republican Party Senate leader Bruno Retailleau also issued a robust defense of Mila against “this political Islam which is trampling our values.”
However, some on the left, such as former Socialist Party presidential candidate Segolene Royal, appeared torn between the desire to defend the unfettered free speech for which the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists died and reprimanding the teenager for her foul-mouthed outburst.
While defending Mila’s “total” freedom to criticize a religion, Royal said that she should have shown more “respect, manners and knowledge,” and should not be made into “a paragon of freedom of expression.”
French Minister of Justice Nicole Belloubet said that the death threats received by Mila were “unacceptable in a democracy,” but added her remarks about Islam were “clearly an infringement on freedom of conscience.”
Belloubet’s remarks caused an outcry from the opposition, with Republican Party National Assembly leader Damien Abad saying: “It’s called freedom of expression.”
The furor began when Mila, a striking figure with short hair dyed purple and piercing blue eyes, live-streamed footage of herself doing her makeup on Instagram on Jan. 18.
Recounting the events to the host of the popular chat show Le Quotidien on Monday, Mila said: “A guy was hitting on me heavily during the live, telling me: ‘You’re beautiful, you’re hot, what age are you?’”
Mila informed those watching that she was lesbian, and that “blacks and Arabs” were not her type.
Cue a stream of insults and threats, followed by her now infamous response, spoken directly to camera.
“The Koran is a religion of hatred, there is only hatred in it. Islam is shit, your religion is shit,” she said, describing in lewd terms what she would do to “your god.”
The video was widely shared on social media, where it elicited more threats, including death and rape.
Fearing for the girl’s safety, the regional education board told Mila to stay home from school, where she remains two weeks later.
“You reap what you sow,” French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) senior member Abdallah Zekri told French radio, arguing that the youngster had “asked for it.”
However, CFCM president Mohammed Moussaoui expressed unease at those comments, saying that “nothing justified death threats.”
For Denis Lacorne, a researcher at Sciences Po in Paris and author of the book The Limits of Tolerance, the case raises questions about the boundaries between free speech and tolerance in France.
“What is worrisome is not that blasphemy might be considered a crime — the right to blaspheme is a real right — it’s the risk of self-censorship,” Lacorne said. “No one now dares stage a play by Voltaire called Le Fanatisme ou Mahomet because it is considered insulting toward religions.”
Mila on Monday said that she apologized “a little bit” to those people who might have been “hurt” by her remarks, but added that she had every right to speak out.
“I never wanted to target human beings. I wanted to blaspheme. I wanted to speak about a religion and say what I think,” she said.
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