French FM in Egypt to Calm Tensions after Publication of Insulting Cartoons
A diplomatic source said Le Drian would meet President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Egypt’s highest Muslim authority.
Le Drian “will pursue the appeasement process” started by President Emmanuel Macron, the French foreign ministry said in a statement, according to Arab News.
The Cairo-based Al-Azhar, considered the foremost religious institutions for Sunni Muslims, condemned French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s decision in September to reprint the cartoons.
And last month Tayeb denounced remarks by Macron about “Islamist separatism” as “racist” and spreading “hate speech.”
Demonstrations have erupted in several Muslim-majority countries after Macron defended the right to publish offensive cartoons of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
Macron’s remarks came after an extremist decapitated a schoolteacher in a Paris suburb on October 16, after he showed the cartoons during a lesson on freedom of expression.
El-Sisi himself had weighed in, saying last month that “to insult the prophets amounts to underestimating the religious beliefs of many people.”
