Mute since the launch of the campaign to boycott French products in the Arab world, Prince MBS’s Saudi Arabia has finally spoken out. “Freedom of expression and culture should be the beacons of respect, tolerance and peace, rejecting practices and acts that generate hatred, violence and extremism that are contrary to coexistence” , announces a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs relayed by the official media.
The House of Sauds immediately supports free speech while condemning those who equate Islam with terrorism. The kingdom is refraining from relaying the appeal launched by other Muslim states demanding action against the representations of the prophet shown in France. Distinguishing himself clearly from Kuwait and Qatar, leader of the campaign to boycott French products, Prince MBS, a supporter of openness and modernism, shares a point of view quite similar to that of Egypt, openly opposed the call for a boycott because of economic and strategic interests with France. Conversely, Turkey, which sees its attempts to expand in the eastern Mediterranean countered by France, finds a dream opportunity to pose as the standard bearer of Islam against France.
In the end, a real dividing line is emerging in the Arab-Muslim world with, on the one hand, the boycott axis going from Ankara, to Tehran via Doha and on the other, the axis nuance and, we would say echoing the Saudi press release, the defense of freedom of expression, which includes Cairo, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. In the end, you lose your Arabic faster than your Latin.
