Five arrested over threats against French teenager who insulted Islam
Five people are arrested over death threats made to French teenager who sparked outrage by saying ‘Islam is a s**t religion’
- The girl, known as Mila, said Islam is ‘a s*** religion’ and the Koran is ‘full of hate’
- She faced a fierce backlash after insulting the religion in an outburst online
- Five people were arrested for cyberbullying on Tuesday by Parisian authorities
- The group, aged 18 to 29, allegedly made death threats against the teenager
Five people have been taken into police custody today for making death threats against the French teenager who said Islam was a ‘s**t’ religion in a viral video.
The teenage girl, identified only as Mila, had previously defended her strong atheist convictions on French TV after she insulted Islam and claimed that the Koran is ‘full of hate’ in an outburst online.
The five people, aged 18 to 29, were arrested in different regions of France over ‘cyberbullying’ and ‘death threats’ against Mila, announced the Paris prosecutor’s office on Tuesday.
Mila (pictured) was removed from her sixth-form college in Lyon, south-east France, by police ‘for her own safety’ and has faced a torrent of insults and threats to rape and kill her
The Tuesday arrests were part of investigations carried out by France’s national anti-hate centre, recently created within the Paris prosecutor’s office.
It came after the prosecutor’s office in Vienne, near Lyon, investigated the comments on Mila’s profile in an attempt to identify the perpetrators of the abuse against her.
The French teenager faced a fierce public backlash early last year after she called Islam a ‘religion of hate’ in an Instagram post.
She was removed from her sixth-form college in Lyon, south-east France, by police ‘for her own safety’ and has faced a torrent of insults and threats to rape and kill her.
In November, Mila sparked fresh controversy herself after posting a TikTok video, lashing out on her detractor and saying ‘watch your buddy Allah, please’, reported Le Parisien.
‘Because my fingers in her a**hole, I still haven’t got them out,’ she added.
France’s left-wing elite was criticised at the time for failing to support the 16-year-old girl who has faced death threats for insulting Islam.
Mila had also appeared on a French TV programme following her viral video to say she ‘does not regret’ her comments.
In the show Quotidien aired in February last year, Mila defended her right to her strong atheist convictions during the interview.
In February 2020, Mila appeared on a French TV programme to say she ‘does not regret’ her comments. She defended her right to her strong atheist convictions during the interview
Mila said: ‘I would like to clarify that… I would like to come back to the subject about the fact that I absolutely do not regret what I said, that it was really what I thought.’
Then show host Yann Barhes says: ‘That you don’t regret the right to blaspheme?’
Mila replies: ‘Yes, that’s right. The right to blaspheme. And I don’t have to hide for this reason. I don’t have to stop living for this.
‘But I would still like to say that in some way I am a little bit sorry towards the people who I might have hurt who practise their religion in peace, and I never wanted to target human beings.
‘I simply wanted to… blaspheme… I wanted to talk about a religion, and say what I thought about it, and that’s all.’
Mila also told the show host: ‘There are two things I regret in this story. The first is that I said it on social media because I had not taken into account how big it could get and [I also regret] having said it in such a vulgar way, because I could have argued my point better.’
When asked by Yann Barthes: ‘Could you have said these words about another religion?’
Mila replies: ‘Yes, of course.’
Barthes then asks: ‘Have you always been an atheist?’
And Mila replies: ‘I have always been an atheist.’
Barthes then says: ‘The law says something very simple. One can insult a religion but not citizens because of their religious beliefs. And you say in the video “one cannot be racist towards a religion.” Is this a question you had already thought about?’
Mila replies: ‘Yes, of course.’
Barthes says: ‘To be so on point.’
Mila then replies: ‘There is a difference between religion and people. And people who are not capable of telling the difference are morons.’
Mila’s original post, which went viral online, caused heated debate in France, where the country’s left-wing elite has been accused of cowardice for not speaking out in defence of the teenager, who faced death threats for insulting Islam.
Police reportedly told her that it is too dangerous for her to return to her high school and she is said to be struggling to find another that would be willing to take her in.
Richard Malka, her lawyer, told The Times: ‘It is the left that traditionally defends secularism in this country. It saddens me that it has not done so in this case’, adding that her situation had been ignored by feminist and left-wing groups, which are usually quick to defend female victims of verbal and physical violence.
Mila told French publication Bellica how she feels ‘the whole of France wants me dead’ after no one stood up for her following the attacks, and as though she can ‘no longer set foot in my high school, and I can’t even change my high school’.
The teenager’s lawyer, Richard Malka, said her plight has been completely ignored by the left, and accused them of disregarding the values laid down by Voltaire in the 18th century
The threats came about after Mila, who loves singing and whose profile is adorned with an LGBT flag, was talking with her followers on Instagram and one of them reportedly began harassing her.
After rebuffing the follower’s advances, he reportedly began insulting her with homophobic attacks and accusations of racism.
Then the attacks took a religious tone, with some users reportedly accusing Mila of insulting ‘our God Allah, the one and only’ and hoping that she would ‘burn in hell.’
It is then that Mila decided to post footage criticising religion in general and Islam.
‘I hate religion, […] there is nothing but hate in the Koran, Islam is s**t, that’s what I think,’ she said in the videos posted to her Instagram stories on January 19, 2020.
‘I am not racist, not at all. You cannot be racist towards a religion. I said what I thought, you will not make me regret it. There are still people who will get excited, I clearly don’t give a damn, I say what I want, what I think.’
French media point out that under French law, Mila has done nothing illegal, there being no restrictions on ‘blasphemy’ in France.
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