Perikatan slams Macron over remarks against Islam

KUALA LUMPUR – Perikatan Nasional (PN) today strongly condemned the recent remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron attacking Islam, Prophet Muhammad and the Muslim community at large.

PN information chief, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said the inflammatory and disparaging remarks were absolutely unacceptable and should be denounced by all right-thinking people regardless of nationality or religion. 

In a statement today, he said it was utterly regrettable that the head of a G7 member country had chosen the path of religious chauvinism and intolerance instead of demonstrating understanding towards other religions and inclusiveness in leadership.

"Macron’s outburst in defaming the Prophet as well as generalising Muslims as terrorists and separatists is undoubtedly hate speech calculated to provoke Muslims across the world while sowing hatred and animosity against Muslims.

“In expressing his myopic and patronising views on how Muslims ought to practise their religion and castigating Islam as a religion ‘which needs enlightenment’, the French president has made bare his Islamophobia as well as intellectual incapacity to grasp the real issues that impact the world,” he added.

The statement came amid a backlash across the Islamic world over Macron’s public remarks defending the right to publish caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, which is considered blasphemous in Islam. – Bernama, October 28, 2020