The Emirates support Emmanuel Macron in the face of criticism from part of the Muslim world.
Anwar Gargash, the Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates defended the head of state in an interview with the German daily Die Welt published on Monday.
A welcome support for Emmanuel Macron. The United Arab Emirates on Monday 2 November defended the French president in the controversy that has swelled in recent days in the Muslim world against him over the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
In an interview published on Monday in the German daily Die Welt, Emirati Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash rejected the idea that Emmanuel Macron had expressed a message of exclusion of Muslims. “You have to listen to what Macron really said in his speech, he does not want ghettoisation of Muslims in the West and he is absolutely right,” he said.
“Muslims need to integrate better and the French state has the right to look for ways to achieve this while fighting against radicalism and community confinement,” added the head of diplomacy.
Erdogan accused of wanting to “increase” his influence
Anti-French protests in some Muslim countries erupted in reaction to statements by Emmanuel Macron defending the right to caricature in the name of freedom of speech. He was reacting to the beheading on 16 October by an Islamist of a French teacher who had shown his pupils caricatures of the prophet of Islam, in the midst of the 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo.
For the Emirati minister the controversy is above all the result of a political takeover by the Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“As soon as Erdogan sees a flaw or weakness, he uses it to increase his influence. Only when he is shown the red line does he show himself ready to negotiate,” added Anwar Gargasch.
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