French lessons

“Never give credit to French-labelled goods, don’t buy them,” he said in the capital Ankara. He said Muslims are now “subjected to a lynch campaign similar to that against Jews in Europe before World War II”, adding that “European leaders should tell the French president to stop his hate campaign”. To which I reply, no they aren’t. Macron is merely upholding not just secularism but free speech. When it comes to radical islam, it seems you can’t have both.

Imran Khan, the Pakistani former cricket all rounder and *checks notes* current prime minister, joined in the fun. Macron was, he declared, “attacking Islam”. And French products are being removed from shelves in tourist hotspots like Kuwait, Jordan and Qatar. On that basis, Pakistan, Kuwait, Jordan and Qatar will join Turkey in not being on my holiday bucket list. I can’t begin to tell you how disappointing that is, because it isn’t.

I very much want this country to adopt secularism, too. The state should be free of religion, no one of religion should be entitled to special rights and privileges but by the same token anyone should be free to worship the God of their choice within the laws of the land which must be observed by all people. This means free speech, which can involve satire and ridicule because to many of us the very idea of the existence of a supernatural dictator would seem to be ridiculous.

I’ll make a point of buying some French goods this week, probably some wine. That will be my contribution to supporting freedom of speech and the advancement of secularism. Turkish delight won’t be on my Christmas list, though.