By Chathushka Perera
Paris, France (CWBN)_ “We will not give up on cartoons, drawings, even if others back down.” – Macron
Several Muslim states joined Turkey’s decision to boycott products imported from France, escalating the strain on French foreign relations, after President Emmanuel Macron said that France would continue its “fight for freedom” addressing the gathering at Samuel Paty’s funeral held at the Sorbonne University courtyard in Paris.
Paty was a middle-school teacher who was beheaded using a knife, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, Paris, on the 16th of October for presenting her students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, published on a magazine, during a class on freedom of speech. The police fatally shot the 18 year old murderer, identified as a Muslim-Chechen (Russia) by the name of Abdoullakh Abouyedovich Anzorov, not long after he had posted a picture of Paty’s head on Twitter.
Subsequent to Macron’s comments on the matter, Turkish President, Recep Yayyip Erdogen, is reported to have said that Macron is in need of “treatment on a mental level”, which led to the recall of the French Mission in Turkey. However, diplomatic ties between Turkey and NATO have long been frayed over several issues, including Syria and Libya.
The magazine that was presented by Paty, Charlie Hebdo, is a weekly issue that has been in the spotlight over racist tones and has been the target of three terror attacks for depicting cartoons of the Prophet, alongside other non-conformist content.
The most recent attack, which took place on the 25th of September, when two people were stabbed to death in front of the magazine’s former headquarters. The killings were committed by a Pakistani national who had been given refugee status in France, having arrived as an unaccompanied minor. The President who had then responded saying that that it was not his place to judge the content of a magazine, awarded Paty, the Legion d’honnneur.
