Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the Bangladesh capital on Tuesday in the biggest anti-France rally since President Emmanuel Macron defended publication of sketches depicting Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Muslims across the world have reacted furiously to Macron\u2019s defence of the right to mock religion following the murder of a French schoolteacher who had shown his pupils sketches of the Prophet (PBUH).
In Syria people burned pictures of France\u2019s leader, tricolour flags were torched in the Libyan capital Tripoli, while French goods have been pulled from supermarket shelves in Qatar, Kuwait and other Gulf states.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared the treatment of Muslims in Europe to that of Jews before World War II, joining calls for a boycott of French goods which Paris said had had minimal impact so far.
In Dhaka, protesters set alight an effigy of Macron during Tuesday\u2019s march, in which police said 40,000 people took part.
Hundreds of armed officers used a barbed-wire barricade to stop the demonstrators, who dispersed without violence before they could get close to the French embassy.
The rally was called by the Islami Andolon Bangladesh (IAB), one of the country\u2019s largest religious parties, and started at the biggest mosque in the nation. Bangladesh is around 90 per cent Muslim.
\u201cBoycott French products,\u201d demonstrators chanted.
Ataur Rahman, a senior Islami Andolon member, told the rally at the Baitul Mukarram mosque: \u201cMacron is one of the few leaders who worship Satan.\u201d
Rahman called on the Bangladesh government to \u201ckick out\u201d the French ambassador, while another protest leader, Hasan Jamal, said activists would \u201ctear down every brick of that building\u201d if the envoy was not ordered out.
\u201cFrance is the enemy of Muslims,\u201d said Nesar Uddin, a young leader of the group. \u201cThose who represent them are also our enemies.\u201d
As the backlash against the French president widened, leaders from European nations including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Greece rallied behind Macron.
The European Union warned that Erdogan\u2019s boycott call was a further setback to Turkey\u2019s already stalled bid to join the bloc.
But the anger in Muslim countries showed no sign of abating. Tehran summoned a senior French envoy, the charge d\u2019affaires, and the Saudi foreign ministry posted on Twitter a message that denounced \u201cthe offensive cartoons of the Prophet (PBUH)\u201d.
Malaysia\u2019s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim slammed Macron\u2019s comments on Islam being in crisis as \u201coffensive\u201d and \u201cunreasonable\u201d, adding in a statement: \u201cWith freedom comes responsibility.\u201d
Macron has also drawn fire in Morocco, while the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah have also spoken out against France.
Chechnya\u2019s strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov accused Macron of provoking Muslims and compared the French leader to a \u201cterrorist\u201d.
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