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On the cover of a hardline Iranian newspaper, it was the “Demon of Paris”. On the streets of Dhaka he was criticized as a leader who “worships Satan”. Outside the French embassy in Baghdad, an image of Emmanuel Macron was burned along with the flag of France.
Anger is growing throughout the Muslim world against the French president and his alleged attacks on Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, leading to calls for a boycott of French products and security warnings for French citizens in Muslim-majority states.
The reaction has traversed an extraordinarily diverse Muslim world with a myriad of cultures, sects, political systems, and levels of economic development. It has stoked current and historical grievances from the markets of Herat in Afghanistan to the upscale neighborhoods of Amman and the universities of Islamabad.
The tension has been simmering since September, when the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo republished cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad on the eve of the trial of 14 people accused of participating in a terrorist attack on the publication’s offices in 2015 for publishing the same cartoons.
Charlie Hebdo risked further inflaming tensions with Turkey by placing a mocking cartoon of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the cover of his edition published online Tuesday night. Erdogan’s chief press aide, Fahrettin Altun, tweeted: “We condemn this disgusting effort by this publication to spread its racism and cultural hatred.”
It was prompted by a speech Macron delivered earlier this month announcing his intention to fight “Islamist separatism”, in which he described the faith as one “that is in crisis around the world today”, prompting objections from various Muslim leaders and commentators.
Fifteen days later, French teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded in front of his school for showing his class the cartoons of Muhammad. The murder, allegedly committed by a young Muslim of Chechen origin, has sparked raids on several accused violent extremists and Islamic groups.
Several French cities responded by projecting cartoons of the Islamic prophet on the walls of buildings as a gesture of defiance and defense of secularism, and Macron said at a vigil in Paris that his country “would not give up cartoons.”
The most recent protests took place on Tuesday in the Bangladeshi capital, where police estimated some 40,000 people took part in a demonstration organized by the country’s largest Islamist party.
Ahmad Abdul Quaiyum, a party leader who addressed the crowd and called Macron a Satanist, told The Guardian that it was sparked by cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that were broadcast on the walls of several French cities last week as a gesture. of challenge after Paty. death.
“It is forbidden to draw Muhammad,” said Quaiyum. And what did they do? Not only did he draw it, he depicted it in a shameful way and Macron projected it in a multi-story building with police protection. That is very insulting, hurtful and unacceptable. “
Even to less ferocious observers in Bangladesh, Macron’s defense of the right to caricature the prophet of Islam raised deep concern. “The French president said this is his right to speak, his right to express himself, but I do not think that freedom of expression means disrespecting other religious beliefs,” said Fida Hasan, 26, a doctor from Dhaka.
“I do not condone the murder of the teacher or the murder of [Paty’s] murderer, “he added. “But it is a two-way street. If no one makes hateful comments directed at the core beliefs of another religion, this heinous violence will subside anyway. “
The perception that the French leader was seeking to reshape Islam touched deep wounds, said Asma Barlas, a retired political science professor at Ithaca University in New York.
“Emmanuel Macron follows the centuries-old tradition of Europeans telling Muslims how we should interpret, or live, our religion, which Europeans rarely tell people of other religious faiths, due to the actions of a handful of Muslims,” He said. .
The French colonization of several Islamic-majority countries in Africa was prominent in the minds of many Muslims, who saw its echoes in the way the entire faith was stigmatized by the actions of a small number of violent extremists, Barlas added.
“Europe has also had a long history with non-Muslim terrorists, but their actions were rarely, if ever, attributed to ‘Christianity,'” he said. “Naturally, Muslims who are not terrorists, which would be 99.99% of us, are enraged by the way our religion is anathematized.”
Macron’s comments have also been broadcast prominently in Jordan, including on state-sponsored shows that tend to exercise caution when discussing inflammatory issues, and many people have changed their profile photos on social media to add a frame with the demand “Respect Muhammad”.
There, too, colonial history was still fresh and evoked a stinging sense of loss, said Mohammad Faoury, 33, who works for an international aid organization in Amman.
“I see people mention the colonial past of France and photographs of French soldiers holding the severed heads of members of the Algerian resistance,” he said. “People think of Macron’s declaration as a direct attack on their identity and culture. They feel insulted. “
He did not rule out that the governments of some Muslim states saw an opportunity to gain popular support by demonizing Macron, but said the feelings of outrage were genuine.
Iran on Tuesday summoned France’s top diplomat in the country to protest Macron’s “anti-Islamic stances” amid widespread fury, reflected and fueled by the front pages of newspapers depicting the French leader as a devil and a terrorist.
Mohammad Reza Vahidzade, a researcher in Tehran, said Macron’s support for the cartoons was hypocritical, referring to the French leader’s 2019 condemnation of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for endorsing a comment on social media that criticized Macron’s wife. Macron.
“Macron said at a press conference that Bolsonaro has no right to insult his wife and that he does not deserve the presidency at all,” Vahidzade said. “But he gives himself and others in the West the right to insult a prophet who is respected by millions of people around the world.”
Maria Liaqat, a philosophy student at Islamabad’s Quaid-i-Azam University, said she viewed Macron’s approach as “Islamophobic” and unnecessarily provocative. “[But] Killing Paty was a brutal act, it is not the solution to kill a human for their personal opinions ”, he said.
Leaders like Prime Minister Imran Khan were also happy to stoke anger for their own ends, he added. “Khan is using this issue only to distract our attention from the crippling economy and bad governance,” he said. “Boycotting French products is not the solution, but unfortunately the majority of the country can support it.”
