Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan considered that his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron seeks to hold Islam and Muslims accountable, denouncing those he called disturbed by the rise of Islam, while Paris honors history teacher Samuel Bati, who was killed after publishing cartoons that offend the Prophet.
During a meeting organized by the Presidency of Turkish Religious Affairs for ministers and religious officials in the member and observer countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Erdogan said, "As Muslims, we should listen to each other more and exchange ideas in this painful and challenging period."
He considered that "nationalist and sectarian fanaticism and terrorism are seditions that gnaw the Islamic world from within," and that Muslims face many complex problems, such as hunger, ignorance, inequality and conflicts, especially in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan and Libya.
The Turkish president said that "the sad reality of Muslims encourages the imperialists and the enemies of Islam to try to undermine them," as Western politicians use anti-Islam rhetoric to cover up their failures, he said.
He also pointed out that "those who are disturbed by the rise of Islam attack our religion by citing the crises that they were the cause of."
Erdogan directed his criticism at Macron, considering that the goal of the latter in launching the "French Islam" initiative is to hold Islam and Muslims accountable.
The Turkish president affirmed that about a thousand Muslims are victims of terrorism and violence in the world every day, while Islam states that “a Muslim is from the peace of Muslims by his hand and tongue,” as in the noble hadith.
Honoring the teacher
In Paris, the National Assembly (Parliament) held a ceremony to honor the teacher, Pati, who was killed by a Chechen youth in response to his insult to the Prophet Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace), and the deputies stood in front of the assembly building and under the dome in his honor.
The French Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blancer, told a TV channel on Tuesday that the victim would be awarded the Legion of Honor, the highest of France's decorations.
In the same context, a public ceremony will be held to honor Patti at the Sorbonne University in Paris tomorrow.
According to the official version, Pati, 47, was killed Friday afternoon near a school where he was studying history and geography in the Conflans-Saint-Honorine region (west of Paris), then the police shot dead the killer, who they said was a Chechen refugee named Abdullah Anzurov, 18,
This came after Patti showed cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, in a lesson on freedom of expression.
France is experiencing a state of tension after Macron said earlier this month that Islam is experiencing a crisis everywhere in the world, and that France must confront what he described as Islamic isolationism that seeks to establish a parallel system and deny the French Republic, while presenting a draft law against "emotional separation" that is considered targeting For the Muslim community.
In the most recent developments, the authorities in Toulouse arrested 3 women while they affixed insulting cartoons of the Prophet in the city’s streets, Monday evening, to affirm their "right to blasphemy," as they put it.
This incident came hours after Interior Minister Gerald Darmanan announced that he had ordered the closure of a mosque in the suburbs of Paris after he posted a video clip on the Internet denouncing the display of the teacher's insulting cartoons of the Prophet.
On Monday, the authorities launched a campaign against Islamic individuals and associations, and vowed to wage a "battle against the enemies of the republic," as she put it.