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PARIS: France on Tuesday urged its citizens to be cautious and avoid mass gatherings in countries that have announced boycotts of French products in a rapidly spreading protest against perceived anti-Muslim bias in Paris.
Muslims have reacted angrily to President Emmanuel Macron’s strong defense of the right to make fun of religion after the beheading of a history teacher who had shown his students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a class discussion on freedom of expression. .
Tens of thousands marched in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Tuesday, while in Syria protesters burned photographs of Macron and in Libya they burned French flags.
“In several countries in recent days, there have been calls to boycott French products, particularly foodstuffs, and more generally calls to protest against France,” the French Foreign Ministry said on its website.
“It is advisable to avoid areas where demonstrations are taking place, stay away from meetings and follow the instructions of the corresponding French embassy or consulate,” he added.
“It is recommended to be more alert, especially when traveling, and in places frequented by tourists and expatriate communities.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led the charge against Macron, backing calls in the Islamic world to boycott French products.
Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are considered offensive by many Muslims, but in France such cartoons have become synonymous with freedom of expression and a proud secular tradition dating back to the Revolution.
Following the assassination of teacher Samuel Paty, Macron promised that the country “will not abandon cartoons.”
The publication of the same drawings had sparked the 2015 massacre of cartoonists and others in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the beginning of a series of deadly terrorist attacks on French soil.
Earlier this month, Macron had laid out a plan to defend France’s secular values against a trend of “Islamist separatism”, describing Islam as a religion “in crisis.”
