United Arab Emirates defended the French president in the controversy that has swelled in recent days in the Muslim world against him, about the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
In an interview with German daily Die Welt on Monday, UAE Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash rejected the idea that Emmanuel Macron would have expressed a message of exclusion of Muslims.
“We must listen to what Macron in his speech really said, he does not want ghettoization of Muslims in the West and he is absolutely right”, did he declare.
Muslims must integrate better and the French state is entitled to seek ways to achieve this while fighting against radicalism and community confinement, added the head of diplomacy.
Erdogan’s political recovery
Anti-French protests in some Muslim countries have erupted in reaction to statements by Emmanuel Macron defending the right to caricature in the name of freedom of expression.
He was reacting to the beheading on October 16 by an Islamist of a French teacher who had shown his students caricatures of the Prophet of Islam, in the midst of the 2015 attack against Charlie Hebdo.
For the Emirati minister the controversy is above all the result of a political recovery by the Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“As soon as Erdogan sees a loophole or weakness, he uses it to increase his influence. It is only when he is shown the red line that he shows himself ready to negotiate “, added Gargasch.
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