⁍ President Tayyip Erdogan said that standing against attacks on the Prophet was ‘an issue of honour for us’
The row with France flared after a French teacher who showed pupils cartoons of the Prophet was beheaded in France this month.

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⁍ Demonstrators denounced France in street protests in several Muslim-majority countries.

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– France has recalled its ambassador to Turkey after Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a boycott of French products in response to the country’s support of a satirical magazine that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. In a speech to lawmakers on Wednesday, Erdogan accused the West of trying to “relaunch the Crusades,” Reuters reports. “Since the Crusades, the seeds of evil and hatred have started falling on these (Muslim) lands and that’s when peace was disrupted,” he said. France’s foreign ministry has warned its citizens in Turkey, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Iraq, and Mauritania to stay away from any protests over the cartoons, and France’s president says freedom of expression should stop if it offends more than 1.5 billion people, the AP reports. France’s ambassador to Turkey was recalled after Erdogan called for a boycott of French products on Monday. The row with France flared after a French teacher who showed pupils cartoons of the Prophet was beheaded in France this month. The caricatures are considered blasphemous by Muslims. In a sign of spreading anger at France’s defense of the right to publish the cartoons, demonstrators denounced France in street protests in several Muslim-majority countries. “France down, it insulted our Prophet,” protesters shouted in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Furthering Turkish anger, Charlie Hebdo published a cartoon on its cover showing Erdogan sitting in a white t-shirt and underpants, holding a canned drink and lifting the skirt of a woman wearing an Islamic hijab to reveal her naked bottom. Turkish officials said Ankara would take legal and diplomatic steps in response to the caricature.