(AFP) French President Emmanuel Macron has defended a French teenager who received death threats after an expletive-laden Instagram rant against Islam, saying the right to blaspheme was enshrined in the constitution and she needs to be protected, in comments published Wednesday.
The case of 16-year-old Mila — who has received a slew of death threats for calling Islam “a shitty religion” — has revived debates in France about freedom of speech and again showed up divisions in the country.
The furore prompted Mila’s family to be put under police protection and meant she could no longer attend her school in southeast France.
“We have forgotten that Mila is an adolescent,” Macron told the Dauphine Libere regional newspaper.
