By Chathushka Perera
Islamabad, Pakistan (CWBN)_ As Islamist terror attacks gripped France over the past months, forcing the government to tighten security nationwide, French Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Jordan Bardella, called for “real financial or trade sanctions” against Turkey, Pakistan, Kuwait and Qatar, in response, as measure solidarity among members of the European Union.
Bardella was reportedly supported by MEP Nicolas Bay, calling a stop to providing Turkey and Pakistan subsidies and customs facilities. The European Parliament is expected to respond to the discourse in the coming weeks.
The attacks against civilians, centred around the publication of caricatures of Prophet Muhammed on a satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, which began in mid-October this year, revisiting the incidents that took place in September.
Since the beheading of middle-school teacher, Samuel Paty, on the 16th of October, in the suburbs of Paris, having depicted the magazine’s caricatures during a civics lesson on freedom of speech, France’s relationship with the Muslim world deteriorated, particularly after President Emmanuel Macron, supported the ingrained principles of French liberty.
Turkish President, Recep Yayyip Erdogen, reacted by saying that Macron was 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 been distorted over the situations Syria and Libya.
Erdogen’s position was further reinforced by a call for a boycott of French goods by Muslim states and mass protests, particularly by Pakistan PM Imran Khan, leading up to the attacks that took place in the Notre Dame Bassilica in Nice on the 19th, which left three people dead, and the stabbing of a guard at the French Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The recent attacks that took place in France were all committed by migrant Muslim refugees, highlighting France’s continued support of refugees fleeing death and persecution, thus far in the European Parliament.
