Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed French President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative to reform Islam, saying that he uses the crises his country is responsible for as a reason to attack the religion.
“The main goal of such initiatives led by Macron is to settle old scores with Islam and Muslims,” Erdoğan said in his speech recorded for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit Tuesday.
“The ones who are disturbed with the rise of Islam present crises that they themselves created as an excuse to attack our religion. Anti-Muslim, Islam rhetoric is today the most useful tools of Western politicians to cover up their own failures,” the president continued.
Macron argued last week that “Islamic separatism” was problematic, and added that “The problem is an ideology that claims its own laws should be superior to those of the republic.”
On October 2, Macron unveiled a new bill that would extend the ban on religious emblems, which notably affects Muslim women who wear headscarves or veils, to private-sector employees providing public services. The state will also have the power to step in where local authorities make unacceptable concessions to Muslims, he said, citing “religious menus” in school canteens or segregated access to swimming pools. The draft law proposes restricting homeschooling to avoid having children “indoctrinated” in unregistered schools that allegedly deviated from the national curriculum.