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French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed in an interview with Al-Jazeera, which will air today, that he understands that Muslims may be “shocked” by the publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, but the shock does not justify the violence.
The head of state announced, according to excerpts from the interview, which will be broadcast in its entirety at 16:00 GMT, on the channel: “I understand that cartoons can scandalize us, but I will never agree with the justification for violence.” And he added: “Our freedoms and our rights, I consider Our job is to protect it.”
Sources close to Macron said that the French president seeks, in this “long” interview, “to clarify his vision in a calm way”, with his desire to show that “his statements on the fight against isolationism have been distorted and (his statements) about cartoons they are often presented in cartoon form. ” .
The source explained that the issue is related to “facing the lie, rather than allowing it to spread and the desire to explain the foundations of the French republican model.”
Macron confirmed in the interview, according to Al-Jazeera, especially that the cartoons were not published by the government, but were published by free and independent newspapers.
Macron’s recent statements on extremist Islam, especially his claim that “Islam is in crisis”, in the memorial of French professor Samuel Patty, who was assassinated by an extremist Islamist from Chechnya for displaying cartoons previously published by the magazine ” Charlie Hebdo “, they lit a fuse. Latent disputes between France and Turkey, on the one hand, and between them and the Arab and Islamic world in particular, on the other hand.
In an escalation of violence, a man and a woman were stabbed to death in an attack on Thursday, in the church of Notre Dame de Nice (south-eastern France), by a man shouting “God is greater.” Another woman died of serious injuries, in a nearby bar where she took refuge. At one point the French police managed to arrest the perpetrator by shooting him, and he was soon killed.
Amid calls to boycott French products in several Arab countries, Muslim leaders denounced what was seen as a French attack on the Prophet Muhammad and Islam, and contempt for religions. Citizens of several cities denounced the statements of Macron, who declared his country’s adherence to cartoons and freedom of expression, and large demonstrations were held in Oman, Tunis, Jerusalem, Ankara, Moscow, Tripoli of Libya, Islamabad, Dhaka and others. On Friday, Lebanese Muslims gathered in front of the French embassy and the Pine Palace in Beirut, to express their loyalty to the Prophet Muhammad and to reject his offense.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called on French citizens residing abroad to be cautious, noting that there is a threat to French interests “everywhere.”
