Recordings › Cartoons of The Prophet & Boycotting France | Mufti Abu Layth · 29 Oct 2020 › Segment 2 of 5
Does Islam justify killing someone for showing cartoons of the Prophet?
muftisThe killing of Samuel Paty: barbaric, but no automatic hero of the state
Watch this part
Open on YouTube at 1:55The player starts at 1:55, the beginning of this part.
This segment1:55 to 5:12 · 3 min 17 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenNo: the killing was barbaric and unacceptable in Islam, and the teacher was within his rights, though being killed does not automatically make him a state hero.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth says the teacher, Samuel Paty, was probably showing the cartoons because they were relevant to the ongoing Charlie Hebdo trials and a discussion of freedom of speech, though he says he could be wrong. An eighteen-year-old French Chechen found and killed him, which Mufti calls utterly unacceptable from an Islamic perspective and an act of barbarity. He says the state's processional funeral is fine, and that the teacher was within his rights to discuss the topic and to show the cartoons, even if doing so just to provoke would have been silly. He says he does not personally think being killed for it automatically makes someone a hero of the state, but that France is a sovereign state and may declare him one.
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says the killing of the teacher was utterly unacceptable from an Islamic perspective.
“i have expressed that this is utterly unacceptable from an islamic perspective you cannot commit these acts of barbarity”
Category: ruling
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine1:55 to 5:12 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
they want you to feel hurt you know your stuff is this is this is what they want this is exactly just put it out of your sight okay just ignore it it may hurt you as a person but it's the world you know we're not here to control the world we're not too i do think it's it's very silly of people to try to offend muslims by doing that but okay if they want to be silly they that's their choice
now this particular teacher samuel patty i believe his name is now he uh i'm not sure in what context he was showing the i think i could be wrong i think he was just discussing uh freedom of speech or he was trying to discuss the charlie hebdo case and showed them as a um is that i don't know if somebody had said that here but is that what um was he just trying to because the the trials are kind of ongoing and things like this so because it was relevant i assume
he was discussing the matter that's what i think or maybe he was just showing them because he was enjoying the satire but i i'm going with the former that he was showing it out of because it was relevant because the current charlie hebdo trials are taking place and this is what it's all about so he was kind of showing them nevertheless somebody apparently they get the message out some french chechen um who's an 18 year old finds out he somehow gets him i'm not even sure how he gets hold of this person
he gets him and he kills him the media was confused about whether he actually beheads him but he or he slits his throat or whatever but he tragically kills him i have expressed that this is utterly unacceptable from an islamic perspective you cannot commit these acts of barbarity okay this is unacceptable is as an honor as a statement he decides to one okay have a whole processionary kind of funeral for that person which is fine which is
you know that's absolutely you know if you want to do that that's fine um he wants to give him the utmost heist award for being a hero for the state personally i don't think really that's being a hero for the state um although i feel he was well within his rights to discuss the topic the charlie hebdo topic i also feel he is well within his rights to show the cartoons if i don't know the ins and outs if he was doing it just to provoke people not because it's relevant but just saying he is a big you know he has a big fu to all the muslims out there
if he was doing as that i don't i think it was just a very silly thing but he was within his rights to do it now being beheaded for or being killed for it i don't personally think that equates to automatically becoming a hero for the state but whatever france's you know their sovereign state they want to declare my hero fine you know it's it's it's absolutely fine uh it's their own executive decision then president macron what he decides to do is um he decides to
Paragraphs overlapping 1:55 to 5:12. Full text on the recording page.
Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2020-10-29-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/anlfdeeoh5y/s/2/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2020, October 29). Does Islam justify killing someone for showing cartoons of the Prophet? [Video, segment 2020-10-29-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/anlfdeeoh5y/s/2/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2020. "Does Islam justify killing someone for showing cartoons of the Prophet?" Video, segment 2020-10-29-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded October 29, 2020. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/anlfdeeoh5y/s/2/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2020-10-29-S02, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Does Islam justify killing someone for showing cartoons of the Prophet?}}, year = {2020}, month = {10}, date = {2020-10-29}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/anlfdeeoh5y/s/2/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/anlfdeeoh5y/s/2/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2020-10-29-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
Something wrong here?
Tell us what is wrong and it will be checked against the recording. Nothing changes until a person has reviewed it.
Sending a note needs JavaScript, which is off or unavailable in this browser. Nothing has been sent.
No name, email address or account is asked for or stored, and the inbox does not store your IP address. For rate limiting it keeps an unreadable fingerprint of your connection for 48 hours, and our database provider's own logs record connections as every website's do. Only your note, its kind, the page and the moment in the recording are kept, for review.