Turkey: Backlash grows to France’s Islamophobia

By Enes Kaplan

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey is protesting France's attitude towards Islam, a top official from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) said on Tuesday.

“That French President [Emmanuel] Macron directly attacked Islam and Muslims shows historic carelessness,” Numan Kurtulmus, deputy chairman of the AK Party, said on social media.

“By doing so, Macron has endangered 5 million Muslims living in France, too,” he said, pointing to the dangers of stoking Islamophobia.

The situation in France indicates how dangerous fascism has become in Europe, he added.

People in many cities in Turkey’s Black Sea and central Anatolia regions also took to the streets to protest Macron’s and other French officials’ statements against Islam and Muslims.

Macron has sparked outrage across the Muslim world by accusing Muslims of “separatism” and describing Islam as a “a religion in crisis all over the world."

He condemned the murder of a French teacher who showed controversial cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad in class, but said France would "not give up our cartoons."

Several Arab countries, as well as Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan, have condemned Macron’s attitude toward Muslims and Islam, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying on Sunday that the French leader needs "mental treatment."

Amid calls for a boycott of French products in many countries, Erdogan has also urged Turks not to buy French goods.

* Writing by Dilan Pamuk in Ankara