“I recalled and I recall here the deep respect we have for Islam”, said the French minister during a press conference as part of a visit of appeasement and explanation in Cairo about cartoons. “What we are fighting is terrorism, it is the hijacking of religion, it is extremism”, he added, assuring that he came “to explain, if necessary, this fight “As well as” the fight (for) respect for the freedom to believe “. Mr. Le Drian met for two and a half hours with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. He then held a meeting with his counterpart Sameh Choukry. His visit comes shortly after the outbreak of a controversy over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Calm criticism against President Macron’s speech
French President Emmanuel Macron had defended the freedom to caricature, promising not to “renounce caricatures”, during a national tribute to Professor Samuel Paty, beheaded by an Islamist on October 16, for showing caricatures of the Prophet. In some Muslim-majority countries, worshipers have reacted angrily to Mr. Macron’s comments, whose portraits were burned during protests and a campaign was launched to boycott French products. Mr. Le Drian also met the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, who had sharply criticized France shortly after Mr. Macron’s remarks, by equating the Paris position with a “call to hatred” .
At the beginning of October already, Al-Azhar had judged Mr. Macron’s speech against “Islamist separatism” to be “racist”. On Sunday, Mr. Tayeb reiterated his criticism of the French position in defense of freedom of expression. “Insulting the Prophet is completely unacceptable and we will prosecute anyone who disrespects our Prophet in international courts,” the religious institution wrote in a statement on the occasion of the French minister’s visit. The latter admitted at the end of the interview to have “noted many points of convergence”. “The Grand Imam proposed to work together for this common convergence (…) because it is together that we must fight fanaticism”, he added. President Sisi had simply defended, in a speech on the occasion of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday on October 28, “religious values”, rejecting “insults to the Prophet”.
Libyan dossier
In addition, the French minister also referred to the Libyan issue during his talks on Sunday. “The developments in recent weeks are going in the right direction,” he said, referring to the ceasefire agreement in Libya signed on October 23 and the organization of the inter-Libyan political dialogue. “We have the same analyzes and the same requirements (as the Egyptians)”, he said, citing the request for the departure of foreign mercenaries and the respect of the United Nations arms embargo. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean were also discussed.
Egypt and human rights
Asked about the presence of prisoners of conscience in Egypt, Mr. Le Drian replied that he had raised the issue with the Egyptian president. His counterpart Sameh Choukry replied that “there is no arbitrary detention, there are detentions under the law”. “Egypt is a rule of law,” he said. According to human rights NGOs, Egypt has around 60,000 political prisoners. Relations are in good shape between Paris and Cairo, where Mr. Le Drian is doing his 19e ministerial visit since 2012. The minister went there first as Minister of Defense, then nine times as head of French diplomacy. Mr. Le Drian is then due to travel to Morocco, where he will meet with several senior officials of the kingdom on Monday.
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