Daily US Times: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on his fellow citizens to boycott French products amid a row over France’s tougher stance on radical Islam.
In a televised speech, Mr Erdogan urged world leaders to protect Muslims “if there is oppression against Muslims in France”.
Mr Erdogan has angrily criticised French President Emmanuel Macron for pledging to defend secular values.
It comes after a French teacher named Samuel Paty was murdered for showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class.
Earlier this week, President Macron said France “will not give up our cartoons”.
Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are offensive to many Muslims and are widely regarded as taboo in Islam.
But state secularism is central to the national identity of France. Reducing freedom of expression to protect the feelings of one particular community undermines unity, France says.
What’s the dispute about?
Mr Erdogan called for the boycott of French products in a televised speech on Monday.
In the capital Ankara, he said: “Never give credit to French-labelled goods, don’t buy them,” adding that “European leaders should tell the French president to stop his hate campaign”.
It came after the French President pledged to defend secularism and tackle radical Islam in the wake of the killing of Samuel Paty. The teacher was beheaded on 16 October by Abdullakh Anzorov (18).
Mr Macron described Islam as a religion “in crisis” two weeks before the attack and announced new measures to tackle what he called “Islamist separatism”.
France has Western Europe’s largest Muslim population, and some accuse the authorities of using secularism to target them.
You may read: France urges Arab nations to prevent boycotting its products
