French President Emmanuel Macron — in an interview with Al Jazeera — has said that he can understand why Muslims were shocked by the controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, but also said he could never accept the issue justified violence, reports BBC.
The interview comes after Thursday’s deadly knife attack on a church in Nice, the third suspected Islamist attack in the country in little more than a month.
Some Muslim countries have urged a boycott of French products as Macron has defended the right to use the images in the context of freedom of speech.
The French president said that he believed strong reactions had come from Muslim nations because people had mistakenly thought that he supported the cartoons, or even that they had been created by the French state.
“I understand the sentiments being expressed and I respect them. But you must understand my role right now, it’s to do two things: to promote calm and also to protect these rights,” he said.
“…Today there is violence practised by some extremist movements and individuals in the name of Islam,” he said.❐
