Muslims Across World Hold Anti-France Protests

Date: 30 October 2020 - 21:45

News ID: ۸۴۲۹۶

PARIS (Dispatches) – Thousands of Muslims have rallied all across the world to condemn France’s anti-Islam stance, after French President Emmanuel Macron publicly attacked Islam in defense of the publication of derogatory cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by a magazine.
The protests were held in many countries, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Lebanon, Palestine, and India.
Macron has been facing a growing backlash in the Islamic world over defending offensive caricatures and also ordering a crackdown on Islam and its followers in the European country.
About 50,000 protesters took to the streets of Bangladesh’s capital of Dhaka on Friday, chanting "Boycott French products!” and holding banners calling Macron "the world’s biggest terrorist.”
"Macron is leading Islamophobia,” said Dhaka demonstrator Akramul Haq. "He doesn’t know the power of Islam. The Muslim world will not let this go in vain. We’ll rise and stand in solidarity against him.”
In Pakistan, some 2,000 protesters tried to march toward the French Embassy in the capital Islamabad, shouting "Expel the French dog!” but were prevented by police forces, who used teargas and batons to block and disperse them.
About 10,000 people also marched through Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi, after Friday prayers in what was organized as a procession to mark the birthday of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), also filled with anti-France outrage.
Anti-France slogans were also chanted by thousands of worshipers who took to the streets of the city of Lahore to celebrate the occasion.
Thousands more set an effigy of Macron ablaze in the city of Multan, in Pakistan’s Punjab Province, and called on the Islamabad government to sever ties with France and boycott French products.
In Palestine, people staged protests outside the al-Aqsa Mosque in al-Quds.
Zionist troops attacked the protesters as they exited the esplanade into the Old City of al-Quds, and detained a number of them.
Palestinians also trampled on a large French flag and burned French flags in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
Hundreds of protesters also chanted "With our souls and blood, we will redeem the Prophet” during anti-France rallies in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Bahrain’s top Shia cleric Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim denounced the French president’s outrageous anti-Islam remarks, calling on Muslim nations not to remain silent in the face of even the slightest insult to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him).
In a statement published on Bahrain’s almuqawim website, Sheikh Qassim said disrespecting Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is equal to insulting all other holy prophets.
The leader of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement strongly condemned Macron, saying the French president is "a puppet in the hands of Zionists.”
"Emmanuel Macron is just a puppet in the hands of Zionists. They pushed the French president into insulting Islam and the Messenger of God,” Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said at a televised speech broadcast live from the Yemeni capital of Sana’a on Thursday evening as thousands of people were celebrating the birth anniversary of the prophet across the country.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the Western countries attacking Islam want to "relaunch the Crusades”, amid worldwide outrage against the publication of blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
In a speech to his AK Party’s lawmakers in parliament, Erdogan stressed that that standing against attacks on the Prophet (PBUH) was "an issue of honor for us”.
In Lebanon, hundreds of protesters also marched in the capital, Beirut, but they were blocked by police forces from advancing toward the official residence of the French ambassador.