Recently, French President Emmanuel Macron had openly supported anti-Muslim acts in France against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). “We will not give in, ever. We respect all differences in a spirit of peace. We do not accept hate speech and defend reasonable debate. We will always be on the side of human dignity and universal values,” he tweeted on Sunday, in support for a French teacher’s displaying of cartoons insulting of the Prophet of Islam in his class under the pretext of “freedom of speech.”
The teacher Samuel Paty was murdered by an 18-year-old Chechen assailant. Commenting on the attack, Macron described Islam as a religion “in crisis” worldwide, trying to suggest that the assailant had been motivated to kill the teacher by the faith rather than radicalism.
The comments have raised controversy and provoked a wave of criticism from the Muslim world against the French leader.
The desecration of Muslim religious sanctities is not rare in France. In September, French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo republished the same cartoons about the Great Prophet and Islam that prompted a deadly attack on the magazine in 2015.
To shed light on the issue, we reached out to Turkish researcher and expert Deniz Caner.
"With the recent comments of French President Emmanuel Macron about Islam, a new one has been added to the anti-Islamic comments and behavior that has recently risen in Europe," she said, adding, "Macron uses provocative rhetoric to mask his mismanagement in the country and the government's unsuccessful economic and social policies."
"In the anti-government demonstrations that started in France on November 17, 2018, 11 people lost their lives in a year. Macron prefers to deal with Islam rather than focus on these losses and social injustice in his country," Caner noted.
She went on to say, "Macron's recent comments have hurt feelings of millions of Muslims living in France. "
"France, which has billions of dollars in trade with many Islamic countries, should not enter into an adventure that will irritate all Muslims around the world," she highlighted.
Interview by Zahra Mirzafarjouyan