Muslims in Europe are treated like Jews before World War II, according to Turkish President Erdogan.

 

The Turkish leader is angry about the reaction of his French counterpart Macron in particular to a jihadist murder of a French teacher at a secondary school in a Parisian suburb.

According to Erdogan, Macron overreacts to the attack and abuses the murder to turn against Muslims and portray Islam as evil.

Erdogan called on Monday in his latest outburst against Macron not to buy any more French products. Earlier, he characterized the French head of state as a confused person in need of help.

The response was indignant, including by Prime Minister Rutte. He called Erdogan’s statements “unacceptable”. And German Chancellor Merkel called Erdogan’s statements ‘defamatory’.

France has 67 million inhabitants. In the official documents, it is not allowed to classify the inhabitants by race or religion. It is estimated that over four million mostly Sunni Muslims are resident in the republic.

But an estimated 8.5 million French people are said to have an Islamic background. A minority consider the French state hostile to Islam and propagate jihadism, especially in many poor suburbs.