#Boycottfranceproducts hashtag has been trending on Twitter amid increasing calls for a boycott of French goods in the Middle East in response to the statements of French President Emmanuel Macron, who pledged to “not give up caricatures” of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
“The entire Islamic world should follow Kuwait to protest against France and its latest shameful attack on the faith of Muslims. #boycottfranceproducts #boycottfrance #MacronGoneMad,” Ansar Abbasi wrote on Twitter.
Others have also shared message of support to calls for boycotting French goods.
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Macron on Wednesday said a French teacher beheaded outside his school outside Paris earlier this month “was killed because Islamists want our future.”
The teacher, Samuel Paty, was killed after he had shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) during a class he was leading on free speech.
“We will not give up cartoons,” Macron said, declaring that Islamists “will never have” France’s future.
Boycott Calls
In reaction, Turkey, Iran, Jordan and Kuwait have condemned the publication of the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, Khaleej Today reported.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation also denounced “the official political speech issued by some French officials in a way that offends French-Islamic relations and fuels feelings of hatred for partisan political gains.”
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In Kuwait, pictures were published on social media, showing the withdrawal of the French cheese products “Kiri” and “Peppel” from the shelves of some stores.
Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Kuwaiti Cooperative Societies, Khaled Al-Otaibi, told France Press that “60 cooperative societies have declared a boycott of French products out of 68 distributed over all of Kuwait’s governorates.”
Al-Otaibi said, “We have removed all French products, namely cheeses, creams and cosmetics, from the shelves of cooperative societies and returned them to the authorized agents of these brands in Kuwait.”
In turn, the head of the Travel Agencies Union, Muhammad Al-Mutairi, told France Presse that “many travel agencies in Kuwait no longer provide flight reservation services to France or hotel reservations there due to the offensive graphics of the Prophet Muhammad.”