Anger at Prophet Muhammad cartoons understandable, but violence unacceptable: Macron

In the face of terrorist attacks at home and boycott calls in many Muslim countries across the globe, French President Emmanuel Macron has once again reiterated the fact that violence was unacceptable and he’d defend his nation’s freedoms.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera on Saturday, President Macron said that he understood the anger of Muslims at cartoons of Prophet Muhammad but that was no excuse for violence in the name of religion. 

The statement of the President comes days after knife attack in a southern French church that killed three people this week. An assailant shouting 'Allahu Akbar' beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in Nice on Thursday. This is the second deadly knife attack in France in two weeks time. 

The suspected assailant, a 21-year-old from Tunisia, was shot by police and is now in hospital.

The president told Al-Jazeera he wanted to clear misconceptions about his role and fiercely secular country, where public displays of Islam, have become a flash point.

'I understand the feelings this stirs, I respect them,' he said. 'But I want you to understand my role. My role is to calm things down as I’m doing here, and to protect those rights,' he added.

But he stressed that he would never accept that the cartoons justify violence. Macron said, 'I will always defend in my country the freedom to say, to write, to think, to draw.'

'Deciding to boycott a country, a people, because a newspaper said something in our country, is crazy,' Macron said.

But even when these statements come, only yesterday a gunman shot and critically wounded a Greek Orthodox priest in the French city of Lyon.

France has raised its national security alert to the highest level, with security increased at places of worship and schools across the country.

Earlier this month teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded in a Paris suburb after showing controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to some of his pupils.

The issue has led to tension with some Muslim-majority countries, with effigies of the French leader burnt in Bangladesh and a war of words with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who questioned Mr Macron's mental health.