Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said on Wednesday that freedom of expression should stop at offending more than 1.5 billion people, following the French president’s anti-Islam remarks and the display of cartoon images of Prophet Muhammad in France.

Sissi added that he firmly rejects any form of violence or terrorism by anyone in the name of defending religion, religious symbols or icons.

French President Emmanuel Macron refused to condemn satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo's decision to republish offensive cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, saying that it was not his place to pass judgment on the magazine's decision. Macron backed the magazine and vowed measures against what he called Islamic "separatism."

An assailant on Oct. 16, was found to have decapitated a history teacher in France who had shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class, police said, adding that police had shot the suspected killer dead.

A French anti-terrorism prosecutor has opened an investigation into the slaying for murder with a suspected terrorist motive, the prosecutor's office said. The gruesome incident occurred in the town of Eragny, in the Val d’Oise region northwest of Paris.