The grisly death of a French schoolteacher at the hands of a radicalized teen in had shocked the world recently. French history teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded in public soon after he showed caricatures of Prophet Muhammad in class. While shared in an academic context, the move had reportedly prompted outrage among some Muslim parents, and eventually led to an 18 year old beheading him in public before being shot dead by police.
But while the incident had sparked widespread outrage, French President Emmanuel Macron's comments while eulogizing the teacher had irked many Muslim leaders. The President's comments that Paty was "killed because Islamists want our future", but that this would not make France give up their cartoons has drawn criticism from several other world leaders.
Since then, #BoycottFrance, #BoycottFrenchProducts and other variations of the same hashtag have been trending on Twitter. Many have taken it upon themselves to call or a boycott of French products, or in some cases, a boycott of the country itself. And while we're not sure how that would work, the potentially high-risk dispute is not just a Twitter fad. While the focus of this article is the social media response and public fury, we feel compelled to mention that with many world leaders sparring with the European country, it can have longer lasting repercussions.
While Turkey's President Recep Tayyip ErdoΔan made disparaging comments about Macron's mental state, Imran Khan-led Pakistan accused Macron of choosing to "encourage Islamophobia". Other countries, including Kuwait, Jordan, Libya, Syria and Qatar have also seen shops boycotting French products and holding protests.
While social media users have found a large number of grievances for which they feel France should be blamed, a vast majority seem to be of the opinion that the French government and the President has hurt their religious sentiments. Others have taken to sharing the logos of various brands, calling for the boycott of French products. We're not sure how accurate all of these brand lists and charts are.
Take a look at some of the posts:
