London/Dubai: Emmanuel Macron faced the prospect of a widening rift with Muslim countries after leaders from Pakistan to Algeria expressed unease over the French president’s crackdown on radical Islam.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan led the way on Monday with a call on Turks to boycott French goods over what he called France’s hostile stance toward Islam, as he seized yet another opportunity to promote himself as a leader of the Muslim world.
While others joined in the condemnation, the immediate economic impact fell on Turkey rather than France, with the lira and stocks dropping as investors gauged Erdogan’s comments as a sign of renewed tensions between Ankara and the west more broadly.
Erdogan has been feuding with Macron over the French leader’s characterization of Islam as a religion “in crisis” and a crackdown on Islamists after the beheading of a French teacher, accusing him of displaying intolerance and saying he needs “mental checks.” For his part, Macron, who faces presidential elections in 18 months, is channeling public outrage over the murder as he presents a hard line on extremism to the outside world.
Shelves Empty
“Both sides are using it for domestic reasons,” said Fawaz Gerges, Middle Eastern politics professor at the London School of Economics. “President Macron is using this tragedy to impress his critics and show that he is as muscular as they are,” while President Erdogan “is doing the same thing: Erdogan has mastered the art of using the sacred as a mobilization tool not just in Turkey but in the wider Islamic world.”
Erdogan’s call feeds into a campaign to boycott French goods that began rippling across the Arab world on social media over the weekend. Some supermarkets began pulling French cheese, yogurt and beauty supplies off their shelves. There were also pleas to stay away from Carrefour SA, the French supermarket chain.
France said the “baseless” calls were being pushed by “a radical minority,” and that a wave of cyber attacks was affecting French websites. France has called Erdogan’s personal sleights on Macron unacceptable, and withdrew its ambassador to Turkey.
Saudi Silence
It’s unclear how widespread the boycott will reach. Early responses suggest countries are dividing along contentious regional lines, with Turkey and its allies on one side and Saudi Arabia and its supporters on the other.
Ali Shamkhani, director of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Twitter that “#Macron’s irrational behavior in public #AntiIslamism shows his crudeness in politics,” while the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs put out a statement condemning “the great escalation of populist rhetoric inciting the abuse of religions.”
By contrast, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have so far remained largely silent.
The region split about three years ago when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut all ties with Qatar over its links with Iran. As Qatar drew closer to Turkey, which helped it weather the initial shock of the embargo, the rivalry spilled out beyond the Persian Gulf. The countries now find themselves on either side of a proxy war in Libya and it’s contributed to deepening tensions in the horn of Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, where Turkey has clashed with Greece, the European Union — and France — over its energy ambitions.
Teacher Beheaded
Erdogan asked Turks to shun U.S.-made goods such as iPhones in 2018 when the two NATO allies were in a diplomatic spat over the fate of an American pastor, who had been held in Turkey over terrorism and espionage charges.
But the call came to little, proving too short-lived to cause a significant change in Turkish consumer behavior as the spat was resolved after Ankara convicted the pastor, Andrew Brunson, and then let him go on served time.
The latest spat was triggered by Macron’s unveiling earlier this month of proposals to fight extremism that stress the secular values of the French Republic. He described Islam as being a religion “in crisis, including in countries where it is a majority religion,” while emphasizing the need not to stigmatize Muslims.
Days later, 47-year-old Samuel Paty was beheaded near the Paris school where he worked after showing cartoon images of the Prophet Muhammad published by the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine to students during a civics class.
The cartoons were published for the first time by a Danish newspaper in 2005, sparking protests in Muslim countries around the globe and a boycott of Danish goods. Exports to Denmark’s main market in the Muslim world, Saudi Arabia, fell by 40%, while those to Iran, then its third largest market, fell by 47%.
“These boycotts can ripple across the region to a certain degree but there is a real difference between the boycott of Denmark years ago and France,” said David B. Roberts, an assistant professor at King’s College London who studies the Gulf. “You can get rid of few bottles of Chardonnay in the UAE and Qatar, but do these countries want to jeopardize strategic alliances with France, an important regional ally?”
Pandemic Concerns
If only Turkey boycotted French goods, the pain inflicted on its NATO ally would be minimal. Turkey was France’s 16th largest trade partner last year. Morocco is the only other majority Muslim country among France’s top 20 trade partners. France’s combined exports to the two countries is still less than it sells to Ireland, a country whose economy is half that of Turkey’s.
French authorities didn’t call for a reciprocal boycott of Turkish products in France, nor at the European level. France’s Medef business lobby on Monday urged French companies to stay out of the dispute. “Don’t answer stupidity with stupidity,” its leader, Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux, said in an interview with RMC radio.
Ultimately, said Gerges of the LSE, while the narrative will resonate among certain sections of society, the wider public in France and the Muslim world have bigger issues to worry about right now.
“It’s surviving the pandemic, poverty and economic hardship – and the overwhelming majority are more concerned with that,” he said. –Bloomberg
Also read: How Turkey’s Erdogan is getting away with his foreign policy adventurism
It is not surrpising to see Bangladesh with all Arabic names of their majority citizens ( ! ) jumping on the sccne protesting against France . They have been freed from their islamic brothers of Pakistan only recently.. Bangladeshi but Arabic, names produces identity confusion. Look at their map, then ames are in Bengali .
Death to macron.great turkey
In support with turkey …ban french products
I support France, what u gonna do?
Erdogan should encourage all the radicals to migrate to Turkey and allow all these radicals of france to settle in Turkey,
Certainly ,the Muslim world is on divide, but the action of France is just an excuse. The overambitious President of Turkey, has already sent shivers to the spines of most of the Middle East Muslim Shekhdoms, which once were under the Ottoman Empire of Turkey. As far as the boycott the French goods are, it is easier said than done by these countries, who depend on France for their defence needs. Most of the exports to Muslim countries from France is of armaments. The boycott will hurt them more than the France. The silence of Saudis and UAE is noteworthy. Instead of blaming France, they should retrospect the causes of this increasing intolerance of Muslim communities towards others.
On pakistani news channels we could see angry and hurt anchors crying and asking for revenge.
France is in trouble and should expect a 26/11 like attack organized by pakistani deep state .
INDIA should join hands with France to stop the attack.
The only way to truly stop these attacks is to deport all peacefuls from civilized countries and ban their entry. If they still carry out attacks, then just drop bombs all over them. They don’t understand language or culture but they are certainly fluent in violence and pain.