Mila: 'No regrets' for French teen targeted for criticising Islam

2020-02-04 16:09:07

A teenager has sparked a national debate about blasphemy in France after an Instagram post calling Islam a "religion of hate". Mila, 16, posted her comments online after receiving homophobic abuse from a Muslim commenter. She received death threats and has not attended school since. But Mila has refused to back down, saying in her first television interview that she "wanted to blaspheme". She has since deactivated her Instagram account. The post has sparked a huge debate in France over freedom of speech. The country has no national blasphemy laws and has a rigidly secular constitution. Police initially opened two investigations: the first into whether Mila was guilty of hate speech, and the second into her online attackers. They have since dropped the hate speech case as Mila was expressing a personal opinion on religion and not targeting individuals.