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“France will not give up its cartoons,” President Emmanuel Macron said after the assassination of French teacher Samuel Paty on October 16.
The murder is related to the fact that Paty had shown the Muhammad cartoons in teaching.
Criticism of Islam
“He was killed because the Islamists want to take our future away from us,” Macron said at a funeral for Paty.
On Friday, the cartoons were screened on public buildings in France, which has angered Pakistan and Muslim countries.
Earlier this month, Macron described Islam as a religion in crisis. He has also announced that he will intensify the fight against radical and extreme Muslims.
Condemned by Muslim countries
“Macron is contributing to further polarization and marginalization, which will inevitably lead to radicalization,” Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Sunday.
France’s ambassador to Turkey was called home last week as a result of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaching out to Macron as well.
– What can you say about a head of state who treats millions of members of different religions in this way? First, monitor your mental state, Erdogan said in a televised speech on Saturday, October 24.
On Monday, Erdogan continued his criticism of Macron, comparing the way Muslims are treated in Europe to the genocide of Jews before and during World War II.
– You are fascists in the correct sense. You are, in the correct sense, the links in the link to Nazism, Erdogan said.
Flag burning
Morocco has also condemned the president’s statements. The same is true for Palestinian Hamas, Lebanese Hezbollah, and the Afghan Taliban.
In a letter to the French ambassador to Jordan, the head of the Amman Chamber of Commerce, Khalil Haj Tawfeeq, asked Macron to apologize to the Muslim world.
It is not just heads of state who are reacting to Macron’s proposals. At a rally in Pakistan on Monday, those present set the French flag on fire.
In Turkey, Syria and Libya, demonstrations also took place over the weekend where people showed opposition to the French president and France.
Boycott
An international boycott of French products is now also spreading in several countries, such as Qatar and Kuwait. President Erdogan is among those who have urged both Turks and others not to trade in French products.
“Don’t buy products with French brands,” Erdogan said.
France’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that diplomats from the countries in question were instructed to engage in dialogue with the country’s leaders in an attempt to counter the boycott, as well as ensure that the safety of French citizens is safeguarded.
European support
The French employers’ organization Medef has said the boycott is bad news for French companies that have already been hit hard by the corona pandemic.
“But it’s not even about accepting blackmail,” Medef boss Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux told RMC broadcaster.
– It is about defending the values of the republic, he emphasized and added:
– There is a time when you have to establish the principle above business.
Other European leaders have also backed Macron. German Prime Minister Angela Merkel on Monday condemned Macron’s “disparaging” features of Erdogan.
The president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the prime ministers of the Netherlands and Greece have also expressed their support for France.
– The way President Erdogan refers to President Emmanuel Macron is unacceptable. The Netherlands stands firm with France and with the collective values of the European Union. For freedom of expression and against extremism and radicalization, tweeted Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday.
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