Macron acts to quell Muslim anti-french sentiment

FRANCE has been stung into launching a charm offensive to quell anti-french sentiment in some Muslim countries after receiving messages of indignation from thousands of moderate believers.

The French foreign ministry was said to be taken aback by 50,000 accusations of “colonial arrogance” on its Arabic Facebook page. Usually, the site receives a few dozen likes or comments.

According to Le Monde, the ministry was struck by the fact many messages were not from “Islamist circles or the ‘radical minority’”.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, had angered Muslims when he claimed Islam was in crisis and later said France would “not give up our cartoons” after the murder of a teacher who had shown a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed to pupils.

It led to calls for a boycott of French goods, notably by Turkey, and protests in various countries. The foreign ministry then said “attacks on our country pushed by a radical minority are baseless and must be stopped immediately”.

Prof Ibrahim Fraihat, of the Doha Institute, said: “This rhetoric full or superiority made things worse. Macron had the majority of the Arab world behind him after the murder of Samuel Paty (the teacher). In a few disastrous declarations, he managed to lose it.”

The foreign ministry then issued “a message of peace for the Muslim world”. Later, Anwar Gargash, the UAE’S foreign minister, agreed that Mr Macron did not “want to ghettoise Muslims in the West” and accused Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, of using the controversy for his own ends.

Mr Macron is said to be considering appointing a special envoy to explain his thinking on freedom of expression.