Amazing: UAE sides with Macron

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) defended the position of French President Emmanuel Macron with respect to the controversy that has arisen in recent days in the Muslim world over his stance in defence of freedom of expression with respect to the dissemination of the cartoons of Mohammed.

In an interview published on Monday by the German newspaper Die Welt, Anwar Gargash, Emirates’ Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, rejected the idea that Emmanuel Macron has sent a message of exclusion to Muslims. “You have to listen to what Macron really said in his speech: he does not want ghettoisation of Muslims in the West and he is absolutely right,” he said.

Muslims must be more integrated, and the French state has the right to seek the means to achieve this while combating radicalisation and communal seclusion, the head of UAE diplomacy said.

The Emirati minister added that Muslims should be better integrated and that the French state has the right to seek ways to achieve this in parallel with the fight against extremism, referring also to the law against Islamist separatism that the French government has been advocating during this time.  “It does not want Muslims in the West to be isolated, and it is absolutely right. They need to be better integrated into society. The French state has the right to look for ways to achieve this: to find a place for Muslims in French civil society and means to combat isolation and militancy,” Anwar Gargash said.

On the other hand, Anwar Gargash did admit to being offended as a Muslim by some of the cartoons, but made it clear that the policy is about something else. Anwar Gargash expressed his feelings as a Muslim about some of the offensive cartoons, but warned against using the issue politically in a way that harms the interests of Muslims.