Paris on Saturday lashed out at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for criticising his French counterpart for his policies toward Muslims and saying that Emmanuel Macron has to have “mental checks”.
In the wake of the teacher's murder in Paris, the French head of state promised to impose better control over foreign funding of mosques and schools. He also described Islam as a religion "in crisis" worldwide and noted that the government will impose stricter secular policies.
Last week, France was shaken when Samuel Paty was beheaded by an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin in a Paris suburb after he showed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad to his students. The suspect was shot dead by police officers the same day. An investigation into the fatal incident is underway.
Following the murder, a draft law seeking to prohibit the justification of a crime due to ethnic or religious motives on constitutional grounds, was passed to the French Senate. Addressing the bill, Erdogan said that "the main goal of such initiatives led by Macron is to settle old scores with Islam and Muslims".