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Following the new dispute over the Mohammed cartoons, the French president tries to clear up misunderstandings in an interview with the al-Jazeera television channel. For the Turkish president, however, he finds clear words.
Emmanuel Macron believes that the current difficulties in the Franco-Turkish relationship are mainly due to the person of Erdogan.
After a week of diplomatic tensions between France and several countries in the Islamic world, Emmanuel Macron has tried to smooth things over. He wanted to remove the misunderstandings that were the basis of the attacks on France, Macron said in the nearly hour-long interview with the al-Jazeera channel, which aired on Saturday. His statements, which had sparked anti-French protests in various countries, as well as verbal attacks from the Turkish and Pakistani presidents, were either incorrectly translated or abridged.
“Unacceptable strategy”
Macron said he could understand that cartoons could hurt you. But the discussion is not about whether the French government draws or supports the cartoons themselves, but about protecting the right to them. Macron’s statements sometimes seemed like a cultural-historical excursion in which he explained the concept of secularism and his country’s history with Islam, and highlighted the difference between Islam and Islam. The Qatari broadcaster’s Arabic channel reaches approximately 310 million households.
Macron also addressed the Turkish president clearly. He believes that the current difficulties in the Franco-Turkish relationship are mainly due to the person of Erdogan, Macron said. He recalled the Turkish attacks against the Kurds in Syria, the disregard for the arms embargo in Libya, and Ankara’s actions in the eastern Mediterranean, and described this as unacceptable. He wants the situation to calm down and that Turkey respects France and the EU and does not spread lies or insults. Last week, the Turkish president questioned Macron’s mental health and called for a boycott of French products. After the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” placed Erdogan at the center of a new cartoon, Ankara threatened legal and diplomatic action.
Encouragement of the Islamic community
The French president received the support of several Muslim intellectuals over the weekend. In a guest post for “Le Monde” they criticized the fact that those who called for a boycott of France ignored the reality and ideals of the country. Macron never criticized Islam, but Islamism, which is a distortion of Islam. At no point does the Qur’an call for the slaughter of critics or scoffers. Precisely because France does not officially recognize any religion, it protects everyone. Among the ten signatories are the rector of the Paris mosque and the imam of the Bordeaux mosque, writers and philosophers; but none from the CFCM of the French Islamic Council, the government’s main contact.
