French Ambassador to Kuwait seeks to allay Muslims with ‘message of peace’
Anne Claire Legendre says Muslims should disregard voices stirring mistrust
Cairo: Islamic religion and culture are part of French history and are respected by France, French Ambassador to Kuwait Anne Claire Legendre has said, amid Muslim outrage over offensive cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) that were circulated in France.
“I want to send a message of peace to the Islamic world, saying that France is not a country of contempt or rejection,” Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai quoted the diplomat as saying.
Legendre called on Muslims not to heed “voices that seek to stir up mistrust”.
Calls have mounted in the Muslim world for boycotting French goods after French President Emmanuel Macron was quoted as saying his country would not give up the caricatures and defended the right to publish them.
Macron’s remarks came after a French history teacher was beheaded outside a school in a Paris suburb for showing the cartoons earlier this month.
On Thursday, a knife-wielding man believed to be a Tunisian killed three people in a church in Nice in southern France.