(JNS) Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted on Wednesday asking why it’s a crime to doubt the Holocaust, though it is permitted to insult the prophet Muhammad. “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 (PBUH) is allowed?” said Khamenei.

It came after another tweet in which the Iranian leader criticized France for allowing free speech that permits insulting the prophet Muhammad. “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?”

The tweets came in the wake of the beheading of 47-year-old middle-school history teacher Samuel Paty in Paris on Oct. 16, and amid a wave of Muslim anger at France and its president, Emmanuel Macron, over his stance on Islam.

On Thursday, French authorities began investigating another terrorist attack where a knife-wielding man shouted Allahu Akbar (“God is great” in Arabic), and beheaded a woman and stabbed two other people to death at the Notre Dame church in Nice.

Main Photo: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Dec. 27, 2017. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.