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Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Emmanuel Macron at a reception in Cairo in 2019
Photo: LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP
In the dispute over caricatures of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi also condemned the drawings.
"Abusing prophets and ambassadors is a contempt for noble religious values," he said on Wednesday at a ceremony in Cairo.
In his opinion, the limit to freedom of expression should lie "where the feelings of more than 1.5 billion Muslims are hurt."
In his speech he said: "Stop hurting us."
Meanwhile, the Grand Imam of Cairo, Ahmed al-Tajib, has demanded legislation from the international community that criminalizes discrimination against Muslims.
Muslims should counter hate speech by peaceful means and by legal means at the same time, he warned.
French President Emmanuel Macron had defended the publication of cartoons - including those critical of religion - after the murder of history teacher Samuel Paty as part of freedom of expression.
Paty had shown caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in class as an example of freedom of expression.
In connection with this, he was beheaded on the street by an Islamist.
The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke after Macron's statements of a "lynching campaign" against Muslims in Europe and called for a boycott of French goods.
The already heated mood between France and Turkey deteriorated further.
The Islamic-conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also condemned the drawings as "offensive".
A French government spokesman described the verbal attacks from Turkey on Wednesday as "hateful".
Especially devout Muslims reject a graphic representation of the prophet and find it offensive.
It is not explicitly forbidden in the Koran.
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ire / dpa
