Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged the people of his country to boycott French goods as tensions between the two countries soar.
In a televised speech, Erdogan said “I am now telling my nation, just as they are saying in France not to buy anything from Turkish brands, I call on my nation here and now: do not pay attention to French-labelled goods, do not buy them.”
This comes after the beheading of Samuel Paty, by 18-year-old Abdullakh Anzorov outside a Paris suburb school, after Paty showed cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad during a class on free speech.
People of France say these caricatures should be allowed as a part of freedom of speech, but Muslims around the world were outraged by these images, as depiction of the Prophet in any form is considered a taboo in Islam.
French President Mr. Macron, who has been vocal about his stance on radical Islam, said that France “will not give up our cartoons” and Islam is a religion in a state of “crisis” worldwide.
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
Within few hours of Erdogan’s announcement, the Turkish Youth Foundation (TÜGVA), an organization close to the government, circulated a “boycott list Turkish Youth Foundation TÜGVA ” of French brands that it advised people to avoid.
The list includes many well-known brands, from the supermarket chain Carrefour and energy giant Total, to luxury goods like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Peugeot and Renault. These boycotts are underway in Kuwait and Qatar supermarkets, where people were seen emptying shelves carrying French milk products and other household items.
The English hashtags #BoycottFrenchProducts and #Nevertheprophet have been trending on social media.
The protests aren’t confined to Turkey. Over 10,000 people took to the streets in Dhaka, denouncing Macron for his comments over Prophet Muhammad’s caricatures.
They flashed huge banners reading “All Muslims of the world, unite” and “Boycott France.” They also carried a large photo of French President Emmanuel Macron and hung shoes around its neck.
The march was organized by one of the country’s largest Islamist groups, Islami Andolon Bangladesh(IAB). The procession began at Bangladesh’s biggest mosque and halted just before it could shut down the French embassy in Dhaka.
Rezaul Karim, the head of Islami Andolon Bangladesh, urged France to refrain from displaying any caricatures of Muhammad.
“We, the Muslims, never did caricatures of other religious leaders. That’s the history. Because the person who taught us is Prophet Muhammad,” Karim told a local news agency.
Police with barbed wired barricades were seen regulating the huge mob, which helped end the procession peacefully. Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority nation of 160 million people and is governed by a secular constitution.
