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France Urges Arab Countries To Prevent Boycotts Over Macron’s Cartoons Defense

Source: BBC

France has urged Middle Eastern nations to end calls for a boycott of its goods in a protest at President Emmanuel Macron’s defense of the option to show cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The French foreign ministry said the “baseless” calls a boycott was being “pushed by an extreme minority”.

French products have been removed from certain shops in Kuwait, Jordan, and Qatar.

Meanwhile, protests have been found in Libya, Syria, and the Gaza Strip.

The backlash stems from comments made by Mr. Macron after the gruesome murder of a French teacher who showed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class.

The president said the teacher, Samuel Paty, “was killed because Islamists want our future”, yet France would “not surrender our cartoons “.

Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad can cause serious offense Muslims because Islamic tradition expressly prohibits pictures of Muhammad and Allah (God).

However, state secularism – or laïcité – is key to France’s national identity. Curbing freedom of expression to secure the feelings of one specific community, the state says, undermines unity.

Political leaders in Turkey and Pakistan have rounded on Mr. Macron, accusing him of not respecting “freedom of belief” and marginalizing the millions of Muslims in France.

On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested, for a second time, that Mr. Macron should look for “mental checks” for his views on Islam.

Similar comments prompted France to recall its ambassador to Turkey for consultations on Saturday.

How Widespread Is The Boycott On French Items?

Source: BBC

Some supermarket shelves had been stripped of French items in Jordan, Qatar, and Kuwait by Sunday. French-made hair and magnificent things, for instance, were not on display.

In Kuwait, a significant retail union has ordered a boycott of French goods.

The non-governmental Union of Consumer Co-operative Societies said it had given the order in light of “repeated insults” against the Prophet Muhammad.

In a statement, the French foreign ministry acknowledged the moves, writing: “These calls for boycott are baseless and should stop immediately, as well as all attacks against our country, which are being pushed by a radical minority.”

On the web, calls for similar boycotts in other Arab nations, for example, Saudi Arabia, have been circulating.

A hashtag calling the boycott of French grocery store chain Carrefour was the second-most trending topic in Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s biggest economy.

Then, the little enemy of French fights was held in Libya, Gaza, and northern Syria, where Turkish- backed militias exert control.

For What Reason Is France Entangled In This Line?

Mr. Macron’s robust defense of French secularism and criticism of radical Islam in the wake of Mr. Paty’s killing has angered some in the Muslim world.

Turkey’s Mr. Erdogan asked in a speech: “What’s the issue of the individual called Macron with Islam and with the Muslims?”

Meanwhile, Pakistani leader Imran Khan accused the French leader of “attacking Islam, clearly without having any understanding of it”.

“President Macron has attacked and hurt the sentiments of millions of Muslims in Europe and over the world,” he tweeted.

Earlier this month, before the teacher’s killing, Mr. Macron had already announced plans for tougher laws to tackle what he called “Islamist separatism” in France.

He said a minority of France’s estimated six million Muslims were in danger of forming a “counter-society”, describing Islam as a religion “in crisis”.

Cartoons caricaturing the Islamic prophet have a dark and intensely political legacy in France.

In 2015, 12 individuals were killed in an attack on the workplaces of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had published the cartoons.

Some in Western Europe’s biggest Muslim people community have accused Mr. Macron of trying to repress their religion and say his campaign risks legitimizing Islamophobia.

This article is originally posted on BBC

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