Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: Macron Needs Mental Treatment; By Fighting Against Islam, Europe Is Bringing Its Own Demise

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in an October 24, 2020 speech that was aired by Anadolu Agency (Turkey) that the way French President Emmanuel Macron treats Muslims is a sign that he needs mental treatment. He warned that President Macron will not gain anything from "messing" with him, and he said that Europe does not really have any freedom. Erdoğan further said that cartoons insulting the Prophet Muhammad are "vulgarity" and a manifestation of Europe's "hostility to Islam." He also said that Europe has a fascist and bigoted mentality, and that since Westerners see all Muslims as Turks and all Turks as Muslims, Europe's hostility to Islam is also hostility to Turks. He added: "With the front it has opened against Muslims, Europe is actually preparing its own end."

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: "What is [French President] Macron's problem with Islam and Muslims?

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"Macron needs mental treatment. What else can be said of a head of state, who does not understand freedom of religion and who behaves this way towards millions of members of different religions living in his own country?

"First of all, he needs a mental checkup. You're constantly messing with Erdoğan. You will not gain anything from messing with Erdoğan. Anyway, in one year, there will be elections [in France]. We will see your fate in the elections. I do not think his path will be very long. Why? He did not achieve anything for France, that should warrant an achievement for himself.

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"On the other hand, in Europe, every day we see new and concerning signs of hostility to Islam that has been on the rise recently. The rain on a mosque in Germany that was done in a disrespectful way, with hundreds of police officers, cannot be explained by security concerns or other justifications. This, clear and simple, is hostility to Islam.

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"They have no such thing as freedom. They say 'secularism, secularism,' but they have no such thing as secularism, either. It's all lies. Lies, lies, lies. In France – the so-called stronghold of secularism and freedom... Projecting the cartoons that insult our Prophet on buildings is a vulgarity of the most wretched kind. This is not freedom. This is, clear and simple, hostility to Islam. We should never remove from our minds that all hostility to Islam in Europe is also hostility to Turks, because for a Westerner, a Muslim is a Turk, and a Turk is a Muslim.

"Anyway, we have seen the fascist and bigoted mentality against our country's [prospective EU] membership, hypocritically called 'European Union values' that some are trying to make the world swallow. Now, with this type of attack against people who are [European] citizens, European fascism has entered a new phase. This dangerous trend is a sign that Europe, which in the First and Second World Wars saw the biggest massacres in human history, has still not come to its senses.

"With the front it has opened against Muslims, Europe is actually preparing its own end. If, perchance, the countries of Europe want to guard their positions in the global system that is being politically and economically restructured, they should immediately get rid of the sickness of hostility to Islam in their structures. Otherwise, this sickness will make all of Europe – from France to Germany – collapse from the inside."