The appeal came as anger escalated across the Islamic world over the president’s remarks at a national tribute to the murdered high-school teacher Samuel Paty last week, with Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, calling on Monday for a complete boycott of French products in Turkey.
Paty, 47, was killed after he showed his class drawings of the prophet during a debate on free speech.
After Macron promised France would not “renounce the caricatures”, a furious riposte that emerged on Friday on social media under Arabic hashtags gained momentum over the weekend.
In a strongly worded statement, France’s foreign ministry demanded that calls for a boycott of its products and the “occasionally hateful” protests against the country must end.
“These calls distort the positions defended by France in favour of freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of religion and the refusal of any call to hatred,” it read.
“Consequently, the calls for boycott are pointless and must cease immediately, as must all attacks against our country, instrumentalised by a radical minority.”
On Sunday, after protests in which the president’s picture was burned and Erdoğan, suggested his French counterpart needed “his mental health tested”, Macron also responded.
“Our history is one of a battle against tyranny and fanatacisms. We will continue,” Macron tweeted in three languages, French, English and Arabic.
“We respect all differences in a spirit of peace. We will never accept hate speech and we defend reasonable debate. We will continue. We hold ourselves always on the side of human dignity and universal values,” the French president added.The Guardian
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