French President Emmanuel Macron’s Islam comments spark outrage
French President Emmanuel Macron recently criticised the killing of a teacher Samuel Paty in the suburbs of Paris by a radical Islamist.
Since then social media users have started several campaigns to boycott French products in protest against the recent comment.
The incident happened after the teacher had shown the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad to his class. Paty, 47, was murdered on October 16 by an 18-year-old radical of Chechen origin. He was, in turn, shot dead by police.
On October 23, Macron said that Islam was in crisis all over the world. He earlier criticised the killing of the teacher. Following this, in numerous countries of the Middle East, calls to boycott French products have been relayed on social media. Using different hashtags such as “#BoycottFrance, #boycottFrenchProducts, #boycott_French_products, and #ProphetMuhammad, netizens called for the boycott of all French products.
A small group of protesters in the Libyan capital Tripoli burn the French flag and pictures of French President Emmanuel Macron, following Macron’s response to the murder of a French teacher by a Chechen extremist earlier this month.
Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan accused French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday of “attacking Islam” after the European leader criticised Islamists and defended the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
Macron already sparked controversy earlier this month when he said “Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world”.
In a televised address, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slandered his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron for his recent critical remarks on radical Islam.
“What can one say about a head of state who treats millions of members from different faith groups this way: first of all, have mental checks. What’s the problem of the individual called Macron with Islam and with the Muslims? Macron needs mental treatment,” Erdogan stated as he claimed that Macron will fail to continue at his post after the French elections in 2022.
France and Turkey hold opposing views on a host of subjects: right from the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh to the maritime rights in the eastern Mediterranean.
