France’s Emmanuel Macron to Muslims: ‘I hear your anger, but won’t accept violence’

“I understand the feelings this stirs, I respect them,” he said of Muslim objections to the cartoons amid widening protests in Muslim countries. “But I want you to understand my role: my role is to calm things down as I’m doing here, and to protect those rights.”

But he stressed that he “would never accept that the cartoons justify violence…I will always defend in my country the freedom to say, to write, to think, to draw.”

“Deciding to boycott a country, a people, because a newspaper said something in our country, is crazy,” Macron said.

Even as the interview was broadcasting, police said a gunman shot and critically wounded a Greek Orthodox priest in the French city of Lyon, the Associated Press reported. The assailant’s motives weren’t immediately clear, but the shooting comes days after the attack on a church in Nice.

READ | ‘May Allah disfigure his face’: Khabib slams Emmanuel Macron over Islam comments

Police officers search for clues after a priest was shot in the city of Lyon, central France.  (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Message of Peace

The country has come under attack in recent years by Islamist extremists who have killed dozens of people. In 2015, two members of al-Qaeda gunned down 13 people at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo after it published cartoons ridiculing the Muslim prophet.

The latest furor came after Macron said that Islam was facing a “crisis,” referring to extremists he says have distorted the religion’s teachings. The comment sparked condemnation across the Muslim world and fueled calls for a boycott of French products.

Earlier this month, an assailant beheaded a teacher in Paris who had showed the cartoons of the Muslim prophet in a class discussion about freedom of expression.

Editorial | Nice terror strike should strengthen global resolve against extremist ideologies that use religion to terrorise and kill.

French lawmakers observe a minute silence to pay tribute to slain teacher Samuel Paty, on the steps of the National Assembly in Paris.  (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Macron’s interview came as France pushed back on criticism that it discriminates against its Muslim minority while it seeks to crack down on Islamist radicals. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian proffered a “message of peace” in a speech on Thursday as leaders and clerics of Muslim countries criticized what they called attacks on the Muslim prophet.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who already has a tense relationship with Macron, backed the call to boycott French products and said the French president needed a mental evaluation.

Explained: France’s complex relationship with Islam, and Macron’s recent remarks

Hamas supporters burn defaced pictures of French President Emmanuel Macron during a protest against the publishing of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad they deem blasphemous, in front of the French Cultural center in Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Macron told Al-Jazeera that most victims of terrorism are Muslim.