Dhaka
At least 50,000 people took part Monday in the biggest demonstration yet in Bangladesh over French President Emmanuel Macron’s defence of the right to publish sacrilegious caricatures of the Prophet (PBUH), police informed.
A rally which started at Bangladesh’s biggest mosque was stopped from getting close to the French embassy where security had been stepped up. Police estimated that some 50,000 people took part in the protest, which demanded a boycott of French products, while organisers said there were more than 100,000.
Protesters chanted “No defamation of the Prophet, and burned an effigy of the French leader. Macron sparked protests across the Muslim world by saying France would never renounce its laws permitting blasphemous caricatures.
The third major anti-France demonstration in Bangladesh in the past week was called by Hefazat-i-Islami, one of the biggest radical Muslim political groups in the country of 160 million people. Many people came from towns outside Dhaka to take part in the rally.
Junaid Babunagaori, the deputy chief of Hezafat, called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to move the Bangladesh parliament to condemn Macron. “I call on traders to throw away French products. I ask the UN to take stern action against France,” he told the rally. Junaid Babunagaori, deputy chief of Hefazat-i-Islam, called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to move the Bangladesh parliament to condemn Macron.
“I call on traders to throw away French products. I ask the UN to take stern action against France,” he told the rally. Other Hefazat leaders said Macron must apologise to Muslims around the world.
The French president, in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, said he understood the feelings of Muslims but maintained that the “radical Islam” he is trying to fight is a threat to all people, especially Muslims. Macron’s comments come amid heightened tensions between the French government and the Muslim world over the cartoons, which Muslims consider to be blasphemous.
“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,” Macron said. “I will always defend in my country the freedom to speak, to write, to think, to draw,” he added.
Macron also hit out at what he described as “distortions” from political leaders, saying people were often led to believe that the caricatures were a creation of the French state. “I think that the reactions came as a result of lies and distortions of my words because people understood that I supported these cartoons,” the president said in the interview.
Bangladeshi Muslims protesting against the French president’s support of secular laws allowing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad [Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP Photo] ndonesians protests against France
Macron’s defence has not convinced Muslims. On Monday, Indonesian Muslims marched to the heavily guarded France Embassy in the capital Jakarta. Waving white flags bearing the Islamic declaration of faith, more than 2,000 demonstrators, many wearing white robes, filled a major thoroughfare in downtown Jakarta.—TLTP
