A Pakistani minister on Sunday withdrew comments she previously made that President Emmanuel Macron was treating Muslims like the Nazis had treated Jews in World War II.
The French Foreign Minister had demanded that the Pakistani authorities withdraw the comments posted on Twitter by Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Human Rights, Shireen Mazari.
She posted the comments after a clash between Pakistan and France over the publication of images of the Prophet Muhammad in a French magazine.
The images have sparked anger and protests in the Muslim world, especially in Pakistan.
“Macron is doing to Muslims what the Nazis did to Jews: Muslim children will get identification numbers (other children will not) just as Jews were forced to wear the yellow star on their clothing to identify themselves.” Mazari had said in a tweet. link to an article online.
However, the article was amended earlier on Sunday to reflect the fact that the idea, if implemented, would apply to all children in France and not just Muslim children.
In a follow-up tweet on Sunday, Mazari initially doubled down on his claims following a condemnation by the French Foreign Ministry on Saturday night, which described them as “blatant lies, imbued with an ideology of hate and violence.”
Later on Sunday, however, Mazari tweeted: “The article I had quoted has been corrected by the relevant publication, I also deleted my tweet about it.”
She said she had been alerted to the correction by the French ambassador to Pakistan.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had told RTL radio that the comments were unacceptable and should be removed from Twitter, but said he remained prudent because some outlets had been taken advantage of and his articles had since clarified.
Pakistan’s parliament passed a resolution in late October urging the government to withdraw its envoy from Paris, accusing Macron of “inciting hatred” against Muslims.
Macron paid tribute to a French history teacher who was beheaded by an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin for showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a class on freedom of expression.
French officials have said the beheading was an assault on the French core value of free speech.
After the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo republished the cartoons in September, Macron defended secularism, saying that freedom of belief went hand in hand with freedom of expression, including the right to blaspheme.
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