I came home from school and started asking my dad about boycott. He started to tell me about boycott in France. When I heard of the story, I was appalled. 

I couldn’t believe that some of the French people were making fun of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), but also that the way someone dealt with it was by killing three people. I believe that all religions should be respected and people should understand each other and not make fun of different religions. 

The teacher who showed his class the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was being very disrespectful because Muslims believe that there shouldn’t be any drawings or pictures of Allah (swa) and prophets because it is the biggest sin in Islam. 

So for that teacher to be showing such cartoons to his pupils was very rude especially as there were Muslim children in the classroom. Moreover he didn’t disrespect any other religions except Islam.

The president of France said some hurtful things and was acting very ignorant towards the Muslim community. I understand that as a leader of France, you should look after your citizens, including giving them the right of freedom of speech, however making fun of a particular religion isn’t freedom of speech, and it is insensitive. 

Understandably, a lot of Muslims were offended by this but as Muslims we should never kill people especially because of anger. The beheading of the teacher and killing of two other people was very extreme and gives Islam a bad impression because to me Islam is the most beautiful and peaceful religion ever. But to a non Muslim, it could look as if Islam condones violent acts.  

By Zainab Scattred-Janneh