France faces boycott backlash after Macron defends freedom to print Mohammed cartoons

“I am calling on the people, do not go near French goods, do not buy them,” Erdogan said in a speech, according to CNN. “European leaders must say ‘stop’ to Macron and his campaign of hatred.”

French teacher Samuel Paty was decapitated earlier this month by Chechen Abdullakh Anzorov, 18, who was later killed by police. Prosecutors said Anzorov was angry that Paty showed his students a Mohammad cartoon. Mass demonstrations in support of free speech broke out in France following Paty’s killing.

Police have been conducting sweeping raids in connection to the decapitation in an effort to root out other radical Islamist networks across the country, which is home to Western Europe’s largest Muslim population.

Macron vowed in the aftermath of Paty’s killing that his country, which is noted for its secular government and free speech, “will not give up cartoons” following his death.

Over the weekend, Erdogan asserted that the French president needs “mental treatment” and on Monday compared the treatment of Muslims in Europe to the Jewish people prior to the Holocaust, according to Agence France-Presse.

“You are in a real sense fascists. You are in a real sense the links in the chain of Nazism,” Erdogan said.

The pushback over Macron’s defense of Mohammed cartoons is not only being felt in Turkey, but other countries including Jordan, Pakistan, Egypt, and Iran.

“We condemn publication of satirical cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi tweeted over the weekend.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan also attacked Macron’s response over Twitter and said his defense of the cartoons could lead to increased radicalization.

“Hallmark of a leader is he unites human beings, as Mandela did, rather than dividing them. This is a time when Pres Macron could have put healing touch & denied space to extremists rather than creating further polarisation & marginalisation that inevitably leads to radicalization,” Khan said in a lengthy chain of tweets.

“It is unfortunate that he has chosen to encourage Islamophobia by attacking Islam rather than the terrorists who carry out violence, be it Muslims, White Supremacists or Nazi ideologists. Sadly, President Macron has chosen to deliberately provoke Muslims, incl his own citizens,” he added.

Meanwhile, France has been met with boycott threats from private businesses in the Middle East. In Kuwait, a retail and grocery chain said that more than 50 of its stores would join a boycott. In Jordan, some supermarkets now feature signs noting that they no longer sell French goods, according to CNN. A supermarket chain in Qatar has announced similar moves.

Despite the backlash, Macron has remained defiant.

“We will not give in, ever,” he tweeted on Sunday. “We respect all differences in a spirit of peace. We do not accept hate speech and defend reasonable debate. We will always be on the side of human dignity and universal values.”

Macron has also garnered support from the leaders of other Western European countries. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert blasted Erdogan’s remarks.

“They are defamatory comments that are completely unacceptable, particularly against the backdrop of the horrific murder of the French teacher Samuel Paty by an Islamist fanatic,” Seibert said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that his country stands with France and condemned Erdogan for leading calls for a boycott.

“President Erdogan’s words addressing President [Macron] are unacceptable. The Netherlands stands firmly with France and for the collective values of the European Union. For the freedom of speech and against extremism and radicalism,” Rutte said.

When contacted about the growing row between NATO allies France and Turkey, a State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that the United States “strongly believes that unnecessary alliance infighting only serves our adversaries.”