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Turkey's Tyrannical Leader Erdogan Furious at France's Macron Over Effort to Curb Radical Islam

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Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is taking aim at French President Emmanuel Macron over his plans to reform Islamic influence in France.

Macron announced plans to restrict foreign funds from going to Muslim communities in France, and more than 50 Muslim associations could be shut down if they're found to be promoting hatred. 

The French president has made several statements this month about problems created by radical Muslims in France who practice what the French leader termed "Islamist separatism."

France has suffered several attacks at the hands of Islamic extremists. The most recent was the public beheading of a schoolteacher who showed his students cartoons caricaturing Mohammed, Islam's prophet.

Macron said he wants to build an "Islam of the enlightenment in France."

Erdogan accused Macron of violating religious freedom saying he "needs treatment on a mental level" because of his attitude to Islam and Muslims. That has prompted France to recall its ambassador to Ankara.

"The person in charge of France has lost his way," said Erdogan who stands accused of seeking to build a new Islamic empire. Erdogan has worked to subjugate Christian history in Turkey while trying to expand Islamic influence, and he even held American Pastor Andrew Brunson hostage under false charges of spying.

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In a statement released after Erdogan's remarks on Saturday, the French president's office pointed out that Erdogan did not offer condolences following the beheading near Paris last week of a teacher who had shown his class some caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

"Excess and rudeness are not a method," and "We are not accepting insults," the statement from Macron's office said. 

After Erdogan's verbal attack on Macron, a demonstration was staged on Sunday at Istanbul's iconic Beyazit mosque by fundamentalist Islamist activists.

Demonstrators held up anti-Macron signs and chanted prayers in support of Erdogan.

Then on Tuesday, about 10,000 Bangladeshis from an Islamist group marched through their nation's capital of Dhaka to denounce the display of caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad in France, while the group's leader urged Muslims around the world to boycott French products.

The protesters from Islami Andolon Bangladesh, a group that advocates for the introduction of Islamic law in the Muslim-majority country, carried banners and placards reading "All Muslims of the world, unite" and "Boycott France."

Muslim-majority countries have been outraged by Macron's remarks last week in which he refused to condemn the publication or showing of caricatures of Muhammad. 

France considers religious satire to be among the kinds of speech that fall under the freedom of expression, while many Muslims consider any perceived attack on their prophet as a grave offense. Islamic terrorists slaughtered 12 staffers of a French magazine named Charlie Hebdo in 2015 after the satirical magazine published caricatures of Muhammad.

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