Malaysian and Indonesian authorities have tightened security following terror attacks in France and Austria, following the comments of a former senior al-Qaeda figure, who warned of possible attacks against French citizens.
“In Indonesia, terror cells are active and will spring into action anytime, depending on the momentum. I predict there will be attacks on foreigners like French citizens” said Sofyan Tsauri, a former senior member of al-Qaeda of Southeast Asia.
Other Muslim majority nations in Asia and the Mideast, offended by the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and French President Emmanuel Macron’s strong stance against political Islam, recently held anti-French protests. In Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Palestinian territories, several thousand Muslims participated in anti-French protests after Friday prayers. India, Lebanon and Somalia also reported protests. Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, responded harshly to Macron’s comments as well.
These warnings and protests come in retaliation to the remarks made by the French government, in relation to the multiple terror attacks have recently been mishappening across Europe. Earlier in France, a man armed with a knife killed three people inside a church in Nice, prompting the government to raise its security alert status to the highest level and more than doubling the number of soldiers deployed in the country to protect schools and places of worship.
In response, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the country had been attacked “over our values, for our taste for freedom, for the ability on our soil to have freedom of belief”, and announced his decision to increase deployments from around 3,000 troops to 7,000.
The attacks come amidst an increasing rift between Paris and the Islamic world, over the republication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad by the satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo. The cartooned portrayal of the Prophet is considered deeply offensive and blasphemous by Muslims, and the issue has renewed a debate about France’s freedom of speech laws.
France is home to Europe’s largest Muslim community and has been the target of a string of militant attacks in recent years because it has defended the right to publish such cartoons. “Killing anyone who insults the prophet is the right of each and every Muslim,” the jihadist group, known by its French acronym AQMI, said in a recent statement. It also added that “The boycott is a duty but it is not enough,”.
In addition to protests and official statements issued, Muslims across Asia and the Middle East whose religious sentiments being offended, have also called for nation-wide boycotts of French products and exports. Earlier this week, France warned its citizens and embassies abroad to take to extra security precautions as tensions and hate continue to rise.
Austria was the latest target of a terror act. On Monday evening, several shooters open fired at seven different locations in central Vienna, leading to the death of at least two, including one attacker. The attacker was identified by Interior Minister Karl Nehammer as an “Islamic terrorist” and a “radicalized individual with links to Islamic State.”
France’s Response to Attacks Aggrieves Muslim Populations Across Asia
As mass protests break out all over Asia against France's stern response to recent attacks, a former al-Qaeda leader in Indonesia has warned of violent retaliation. Read more:
November 4, 2020
SOURCE: Christian Estrosi/Twitter