In many Muslim countries, the advocacy of French President Emanuel Macron for freedom of expression, including the right to caricature the Islamic prophet Muhammad, has provoked a sharp reaction.
Thousands of people took to the streets in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, on Tuesday, demonstrators burned images of Makron in Syria and French flags in Libya.
“In recent days, there have been calls in several countries for a boycott of French goods, in particular food, and general calls for protests against France,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “It is advisable to remain very vigilant, especially when traveling and being in places popular with tourists and foreigners.”
Calls for a boycott of French products in the Muslim world spread rapidly on Sunday in response to Macron’s support for cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
After the assassination of a Parisian suburban teacher, Samuel Pati, by an Islamic extremist for showing Muhammad’s cartoons to pupils, Macron stressed that France would “not give up our cartoons.”
On Friday, Muhammad’s cartoons were projected onto French government buildings, causing another storm of outrage in the Muslim world.
Over the weekend, Turkish President Regepi Taipa Erdogan said that Macron had to check his mental health in connection with his views on Islam and Muslims.
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