The North Africa-based Al-Qaeda group has called on its supporters to murder anyone who “insults” the Islamic prophet Mohammed and vowed to take revenge on French President Emmanuel Macron.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which primarily operates in Algeria, released a statement this week, saying: “Killing the one who insults the prophet is the right of every Muslim capable of enforcing it.”
The terrorist group went on to state that demands for a boycott of French products by Muslim countries were not enough and called for revenge against France and President Macron, while labelling the killer of teacher Samuel Paty a “martyr”, Le Figaro reports.
After the death of Paty, who was killed by a jihadist teen refugee for showing his class cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, President Macron has cracked down on several Islamist-linked groups.
The crackdown has been met with opposition from much of the Islamic world, including Turkey were President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also endorsed boycotts of French products and labelled President Macron as mentally unwell.
The Turkish leader became even more indignant after Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine that printed the Mohammed drawings, published a cartoon aimed at Erdogan himself.
“I didn’t look at this cartoon (…) There is no need to say anything about these scoundrels,” Erdogan said and added: “My anger is not due to the despicable attack on my person, but to the insults against the prophet.”
Al-Qaeda has threatened France many times in the past and was directly linked to the original Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in 2015 that saw the two brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi claim to be members of Al-Qaeda’s group in the Gulf region, Al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula.
Despite threats and protests, President Macron has stood firm on the issue of radical Islamic extremism, stating this week that Islamists who do not respect French values should leave.
“I’m telling you very clearly: not our values! We believe in the Enlightenment, and women have the same rights as men. It is vital. And so, I will never, never, never accept an association, even if it would be in the name of a religion, that would promote [the idea that] a little girl is not the equivalent of a little boy; she will not be given the same education, she will not be given the same opportunities — because it’s not our values,” Macron said.
“People who think like that, let them do it somewhere else, but not on French soil,” he added.
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