Mon 09 November 2020:
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was in Egypt Sunday where he sought to ease tensions with the Arab world, after uproar surrounding the republication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Le Drian met with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, and Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Egypt’s highest Muslim authority, speaking of his country’s “deep respect” for Islam, while at the same time acknowledging differences.
France’s foreign minister visited Cairo to meet with the grand imam of Al Azhar in the hopes of calming tensions between France and the Muslim world pic.twitter.com/aQu6w44dX7
— TRT World (@trtworld) November 9, 2020
The highly anticipated meeting tackled French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s decision in September to reprint the cartoons, which Muslims consider to be blasphemous. Last month, al-Tayeb denounced remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron about “Islamist separatism” as “racist” and spreading “hate speech”.
Macron’s comments followed the killing of Samuel Paty, a teacher in a Paris suburb who showed his pupils drawings of the prophet during a discussion on free speech.
Al-Tayeb’s position was unmoved on Sunday as he reiterated his defence of Islam’s sacredness – depictions of the prophet are strictly forbidden in Islam.
“Insulting our Prophet is completely unacceptable and we will pursue anyone who disrespects our honourable Prophet in international courts, even if we spend the rest of our lives on this matter only,” he said in a statement released by Al-Azhar.
Al-Tayeb had late last month called for universal legislation criminalising discrimination against Muslims, and urged Muslims to resort to peaceful and legal means to “resist hate speech”.
Sent to Egypt to defuse tensions, Le Drian sought to convey an emollient message following the meeting.
Demonstrations erupted in several Muslim-majority countries after Macron defended the right to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
El-Sisi himself had weighed in on the controversy last month, saying that “to insult the prophets amounts to underestimating the religious beliefs of many people”.
During the meeting on Sunday, el-Sisi emphasised the need to promote “coexistence and tolerance” among religions, his office said.
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