France calls on Arab regimes to stop boycott campaign of French products

Paris (QNN)- The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Arab countries to stop retail companies from boycotting French products. The boycott campaign came in response to Macron’s recent Islamophobic comments and has been met by extensive interaction.

“We will not give in, ever. 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,” the French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted in Arabic, English, and French, refusing to apologize for over one billion Muslims worldwide, including over 4 million French Muslims.

We will not give in, ever.
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.

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 25, 2020

The foreign affairs ministry said in a statement that in recent days there had been calls to boycott French products, notably food products, in several Middle Eastern countries as well as calls for demonstrations against France over the publication of satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

“These calls for boycott are baseless and should stop immediately, as well as all attacks against our country, which are being pushed by a radical minority,” the statement said.

Macron on Wednesday said he won’t prevent the publishing of insulting cartoons of Prophet Muhammad under the pretext of freedom of expression, a statement that sparked outrage in the Arab and Muslim world. France recently launched an extensive witch hunt against the Muslim community following Macron calling Islam a problematic religion that needs to be contained. Many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and mosques have been shut down in the last two weeks, while assaults against Muslims have peaked.

Macron this month described Islam as a religion “in crisis” worldwide and said the government would present a bill in December to strengthen a 1905 law that officially separated church and state in France. He announced stricter oversight on schooling and better control over foreign funding of mosques. But the debate over the role of Islam in France has hit a new intensity after the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty which prosecutors say was carried out by an 18-year-old Chechen who had contact with a terrorist in Syria.