Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday he understood and respected the feelings aroused by caricatures of the Holy Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). He said this in a bid to calm tensions with Muslims in France and around the world but vowed never to accept the violence. The French president spoke to an Arab TV channel when he issued these comments, hinting that he sought to calm flaring tensions with Muslims around the world. However, he lashed out at “lies” that the French state was behind the caricatures. France is on edge after the republication in early September of cartoons of Holy Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) by the Charlie Hebdo weekly, which was followed by an attack outside its former offices, the beheading of a teacher, and an attack on a church in Nice Thursday that left three people dead.
